Ex-Dem Lawmaker Who Switched to GOP Says She ‘Had No Idea’ What a Centrist Was Before Taking Office

Georgia state Rep. Mesha Mainor told CNN she did not know about political centrism until after she took office.

Mainor made news last week when she left the Democratic Party to join the GOP, citing differences on issues including crime and school choice. She represents the 56th district which is in deeply Democratic Atlanta and ran uncontested as a Democrat in the 2020 and 2022 general elections.

On Wednesday’s edition of CNN Primetime, Laura Coates asked the two-term lawmaker why she decided against becoming an independent instead.

“I understand as recently as last year, you said you would never switch parties,” Coates said. “What changed to go Republican rather than independent?”

“So, in Georgia, it’s not really easy to be an independent,” Mainor said. “At the last election, I got about 19-20,000 votes. To be independent, you have to get thousands of signatures for–to even be on the ballot. So it really is impractical to be an independent in Georgia.”

“Well, given that, it sounds like, are you truly a Republican now or is it just politically expedient to be that now then based on that?” Coates asked.

Mainor responded by saying being a Democrat was “all I knew” and that it was not until she became a lawmaker that she learned about centrism:

So when I came into office, I came in as a Democrat. I’ve been a Democrat my entire life. That’s all I knew. It wasn’t until becoming a policymaker, actually looking at the policy, digging in into the fine details that many people said, “Ok, you’re actually not a Democrat. You are a centrist,” or, “You are a moderate.” As a layperson, [I] had no idea that was such a thing. And now I am still a moderate and still a centrist, but just on the Republican side.

Mainor did not elaborate as to who told her she is a centrist. Later in the interview, Coates asked the legislator if she will support Donald Trump for president.

“I would say that there are 12 candidates,” she replied. “I have been in office for two seconds as a Republican. I have not looked at any of the candidates extensively because I was a former Democrat. So, I was looking at what is president Biden doing. So, ask me again, invite me back in a few months if you want to ask that particular question.”

Watch above via CNN.