Let's just be honest. Today's Democrats are absolutely insane. These aren't your parents Democrats, These aren't your grandparents Democrats.
They're crazy.
So it's not a surprise that maybe some Democrats are saying, you know what, maybe I should be a Republican. The Democrat Party has left maybe high We'll talk to one of those individuals. Georgia State Representative Mesha mayn Are. She recently switched political parties. It made a ton of news headlines. You might have seen her on the news talking about it.
So I'm going to talk to her. I want to find out why she left the Democrat Party, and even beyond that out I want to press her on some issues. Where does she stand on the issue of life, Where does she stand on some of these transgender issues, what does she believe? And why did she switch parties. We're going to talk to her coming up. Georgia State Representative Mesha man Are. Also, she represents a really interesting part
of Georgia. It's incredibly liberal. She represents an area of the West side of Atlanta which is ninety percent Democratic, So what does this mean for her future political ambitions? All of that and more Stay with US. Representative it's great to have you on the show. You've made some headlines recently.
I have, and I think it's good.
It's waking Americans up, It's waking up a Democratic population that was once in hibernation, and so I think it's a good thing.
You know, so you left the Democratic Party? What spurred that?
You know?
Why make that decision.
I've been in office for three years, and from the moment I walked in, it's been difficult working with many of the Democrat colleagues, mainly the legislation that I was bringing to the table to help my constituents in the communities I represent. They were trying to sabotage everything. It did not matter what it was. They wanted to sabotage every single thing that had my name on it. I grew thick skin and so that was fine. We came
across this school choice vote back in March. I had a fellow colleague to put a thousand dollars check up online for anybody to run against me. Whether they cared about the community or not. We don't care. We just want anybody except Representative Manor. I was still fine with that. It wasn't until that was in March April. But June July, other colleagues just randomly out of the Blues started coming on my social media bashing me, and so it's like, Okay,
where is this coming from. I haven't seen you since March, and I did some self reflection, Misha. They're bashing you about policy issues, and if the issues I'm fighting for are not Democrat issues, then maybe I'm a part of the wrong party. And so I just started doing research from there.
Why do you think school choice, if you look at polling, is something that really unites all Americans?
Why do you think the left opposes it?
I think they're opposing it because we have the person that's over you know, the teacher bureaucracy in Georgia. You know, definitely once a week, sometimes more than a week, she is blasting out.
Video messages about her opinion.
And her opinion includes we must get Nischa Maynor out of office because.
She supports school choice.
So she has made it very clear that the Democrats are not supposed to support school choice. So to answer your question, it's the teachers' union, and the teachers are not necessarily for what the teachers unions are saying. I had a teacher call me yesterday, not from my district, but a teacher in Warner Robbins. She said, I support you. I think I'm going to turn Republican. And I asked her, I said, what do you get from the teachers' union?
She said that during COVID she needed to be online, and so the teachers Union was helpful because they were able to secure her a position online, But anything else, she doesn't see the importance of them.
Well, why do you support school choice? Obviously it's something you're passionate about if it led you to switching political parties.
I'm passionate about school choice because I am that student. I grew up in an underserved community. Granted my family had resources. The community kind of collapsed around my family's home, but so my mom shipped me off to go to school in another community where the schools were performing better. That is against the law these days. You can go to jail for that. And if ninety seven percent of kids in one school cannot read or perform simple math,
can you blame the parents. I can't because I'm a product of school choice, if you will, and so I'm supporting it for every single kid that was just like me, that needs an opportunity.
What led you in politics?
I was led really by my spirit. Started off in a special election the council member died. It was a fleeting thought when my mom told me he died. I'm going to run for office. And it wasn't until a month or so later someone called me asking for my support for them as the special election candidate. So I did some research. How do you run for office? I was the last person to qualify. It was a packed race. I did very well for not being in politics, and
people said, look, you should run again. We just didn't know anything about you, but you're You're the type of person we need. But that race went to court and anybody on the ballot was considered a litigant. And I took the opportunity to ask Fullton elections under oath, why are the lines for so long? You know, what are your processes? They had no processes, et cetera. On my spirit said Misha, this is why you ran for city council, because you're going to run for state office and you're
going to change some laws. I won the race, and one of the very first bills that I introduced was about election management processes.
What's been the reaction so far to switching parties.
It has been overwhelmingly supportive.
If there was a number greater than one hundred percent a percentage, I would say it's greater than one hundred percent. Support for my Republican colleagues. But not just the colleagues I work within the Capitol, but across the state of Georgia. There's all so quite a large amount of Democrat voters from all over the state of Georgia saying they feel exactly like me. They are completely frustrated with the Democrat Party. I said, the Democrat Party has left me there saying
the same thing. They no longer support the ideals of the Democrat Party. As far as my Democrat colleagues, some have reached out to say, I'm sorry that it came to this. They were treating you terrible. You didn't deserve that, so I get it. And then there were other colleagues that said, you know, there are a lot of people that agree with you. You're just the first one to have the guts to do something about it.
What is today's Democrat Party? I guess how would you sum it up or how would you describe it?
I would describe it as policy driven by the things that they fight for. So in the Capital, the things that they're fighting for are not economic.
Opportun unities for marginalized people.
They are not educational opportunities for children in underserved communities. It is not workforce development. Georgia has a workforce crisis. They're not supporting that. I had a bill that said if you buy something, you must give the person their change back. There was a personal example. I saw someone buying some milk for two dollars. He only had a five dollar bill and a family dollar, which is the grocery store in that community. The store would not give
him his change back. He was forced to buy the milk for five dollars. The bill said, give people their change, whether it's a store credit or something. You can't just keep people's money. They didn't support that. So they're supporting things that are not kitchen table items.
I'll say that, well, you know, but they purport to be the party for minorities, at least that's how they try to position themselves publicly.
Is that the case?
I think they may be for certain minorities, not all minorities.
We've also seen the Left go in certain directions on a lot of these cultural issues. You know, on things like policing, they've tried to cut budgets and you know where they've sort of taken aim at police officers, and then you look at issues like transgender issues and things of that nature. I mean, on a lot of these cultural issues, they've seemed to be going off the deep end.
How concerned are you about those issues? Do you think that's going to lead more people to switching parties or to taking another look at Republicans.
That is why a lot of people are switching parties. You hit the nail on the head. Before I even got into office, I campaigned on public safety. I was my first year campaigning. It was during COVID, and that's when you know all of the defund the police jargon was out there. I said, then, I do not support defunding. The police are sometimes not even showing up in marginalized communities, so why on earth would I give them a reason to not show up. The first thing they will say
is you cut my funding. So I didn't agree with it. Then I agreed with the school choice. I just I think they've lost the voice of people, and I think they've gone so far there's no turning back, because if they did, there's going to have to be some humility. No political party wants to be humble, so they can't say, you know, what we were wrong.
They can, but I don't see them doing.
That, you know.
And there's also this effort in you know, Democrat states and Democrat areas to to not have it had been disclosed to parents if a child wants to change genders. You know, where do you think your district aligns with that? And where do you think most Americans are on that?
The census, the US census. From the information received, I do believe they are going to They're trying to gather more information to see who exactly or how much much of the population identifies with LGBQT in any capacity. From my perspective, it is not a large percentage of the population in my district. I do have a large LGBQT community, which I support what they need. And so for that question, I'm going to say I support on a lot of things.
I'm pro choice. I'll give you this example. I'm pro choice. I do not believe in abortions for myself or you know, life is life. But if someone chooses to do that, then that makes me pro choice. If people want to do whatever they want to do with their bodies, let them do that. But you can't force things on an entire population, especially if no one's asking to have these cultural issues being forced upon them with respect.
Though, if life is life, then you know why support ending it.
It really is a freedom choice. I don't support it. That's me as an individual. I don't want anyone coming in my household telling you what I can and can't do.
Well.
I mean, I think it's a little bit different when you're talking about human life.
I mean I would agree, I would.
I have to imagine you don't support the murder of an adult, so I don't see how it would be different for an innocent baby.
I know it sounds terrible when you say it.
I agree, I agree, but everyone does not necessarily agree with me on that subject. And I represent sixty thousand people. I can't force if forty thousand of my constituents feel that they need to do this for specific reasons. As they're representative, you know I have to support their choice. It just like I support the right to bear arms, I support the right to a quality education. I support police safety or safe communities. That is just an area where I definitely would not be in office if I
just came out and said I don't support it. And it's not even because that is I'm elected. It really is. I don't want anyone in my home telling me what to do if someone is and I don't mind getting into it. If someone is raped. I could see the psychological trauma that can go into that. I don't know what that looks like from raising a child from.
A circumstance like that. I just don't know.
For a child that is molested at twelve years old, I don't know what that looks like as far as can that person be a capable parent. It's a complicated issue. I think that's just another topic that requires several questions to dig through. My general answer to that, though, is I don't want anyone in my home and I'm going to have to respect that. Now say this, we have got to really promote safe sex. I think there are a lot HIV AIDS is at astronomical rates, especially in
minority communities. I think that because people have lost their way so much, because Democrats are fighting for so many things that are not family oriented conservative values, people have lost their way and are having unprotected sex, and so you're ending up with situations where life happens. You know, when you have unprotected sex, you can get AIDS if
you have unprotected sex. I'm speaking from a former CDC as a former CDC employee, So we need to make sure that we are discussing safe ways to have sex. If that's what you're going to do.
No, I would agree with that.
I just think if a human life is a human life, it's a human life and you can't end it otherwise, you know, that would be murder.
And then if you look.
At raper incest or that's less than one percent of abortions. The vast, vast majority, almost all of abortions are elective. It's just someone not wanting to be a mother, so they then kill a child. And I see your point about your you know, the right to your to your own home, but I would I would assume if someone in your district molested a child in their home, they don't have that right. So I don't think a person has a right to end to human life. Deeply held
belief of mine. So I'm just going to have to disagree with you on those points. What's your point of view on Joe Biden.
I think that President Biden is losing support rapidly. I think that there is not another candidate that could potentially go against him as a Democrat that would be successful. We will see. There's still time for other people to jump in the race. The poll and I have seen with with Kennedy, he has not surpassed Biden. And right now Biden and Trump are neck and neck, and we'll see.
You know, the Republican Party has twelve candidates. Still, anything can happen, you know, in politics, that is what everybody knows. Anything can happen at any moment. So it'll be an interesting ride. But I do think a lot of people are definitely not happy with any Democrat at this point.
Do you see yourself voting for Joe Biden.
I am with the Republican Party. I will not be voting for Joe Biden.
Do you see yours self voting for Donald Trump?
I see myself voting for the Republican nominee, whomever that will be, whoever it is, I'm going to vote for the Republican nominee. I'm not going to vote for a Democrat.
What's been the response in your district? Because I know you represent the West side of Atlanta. It's ninety percent democratic. What do you think this means for future in politics?
The response from my district has been overwhelmingly supportive. From the moment the news came out. People were texting me, calling me, emailing me saying they still support me. I've stepped up in the community and provided for them. It doesn't matter if there's an R or a D next to my name. From people all across the state of Georgia,
there's been support, whether it's Republican or Democrat. I think we are at a political shift where people, especially since we're post COVID, people are more and tuned to what's going on, and people are not happy with As you said, this social political spectrum. People are really interested in the money in their pockets so they can provide for their families.
Anything else you'd like to leave us with before we go.
I need help.
I am tackling an entire Democrat system, So I would love for people to go to my website at Nishamaynor dot com to support me and my initiatives to turn permanently my house district in the middle of the heart of Atlanta read and I can do it with help. Well.
I appreciate you taking the time to join the show. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
That was State Representative Misha Maynor. Appreciate her taking the time to join the show. Appreciate you guys for listening every Monday and Thursday, but you can listen throughout the week. I also want to think John Cassio for putting the show together at a ways Until next time,