Black lawmaker Mesha Mainor who defected from Democrats to join Republicans says the African-American vote has been taken for granted for 50 YEARS as evidence grows that Biden’s support is collapsing

“Nobody ever tells us what the Democratic platform is or what the Republican platform is,” Georgia Rep. Mesha Minor said in her cramped office.

“They just say you’re a democrat. And that’s how you vote.”

That wasn’t enough for Minor, an African-American from a state where the black vote carried Joe Biden to Georgia’s 16 Electoral College votes in 2020.

Earlier this year, a woman elected as a Democrat in 2020 did the unthinkable by walking down the aisle to become the only Black Republican in the state Legislature.

Her decision was driven by poor schools, the need to improve safety on Atlanta’s streets and a growing sense that Democrats were not acting in the best interests of her black voters.

The change sparked a backlash, including a torrent of online abuse from people calling for her to kill herself or making references to “Aunt Jemima.”

But during an interview with DailyMail.com, she said she was confident she could win re-election as a Republican in a poor, predominantly black district.

Events at her town hall have become busier since she changed positions, she added, suggesting she is keeping pace with her constituents and growing distrust of Democrats.

“I feel like this story will especially appeal to minority voters because we’ve been listening to you guys for 50 years,” she said.

“You can’t keep telling us another law that we’re going to believe. Were made.

“And I’m just the first black Republican in metro Atlanta to ever find myself in this position.”

Black voters in Georgia could play a decisive role not only in how the state distributes its Electoral College votes, but also in deciding who wins the White House in 2024.

They make up about a third of the electorate in the tightest states.

In 2016, Georgia elected Trump and then went to Joe Biden by just 0.2. percent of votes.

Exit polls show he won with 88 percent of the black vote.

This time he may have to look elsewhere for votes. A Dailymail.com poll of 550 likely voters in the state found Biden supported by 54 percent of black respondents and Trump by 16 percent.

The sample size is small and does not have statistical weight to allow firm conclusions to be drawn.

However, it reflects other polls that show Trump moving toward the bloc that helped Biden win in 2020.

A recent New York Times and Siena College survey found that 22 percent of black voters in six battleground states would support Trump.

Minor said it was only recently that she began to rethink what she learned about politics as a child.

“It wasn’t until I got elected that I actually read the law and went to Democratic leadership saying this isn’t going to help black people… this isn’t going to help my community,” she said.

One hot issue was “school choice” in a city where children’s literacy rates are well below expectations. ABOUTOnly 32 percent of Georgia fourth graders were proficient in reading in 2022, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

Maynor, a graduate of Howard University in Washington, D.C., knew the importance of education from an early age. Her mother made sure she gained strength by using someone else’s address to allow her daughter to avoid a poor local school and choose a better place in a wealthier area.

The solution for another generation of children, Minor said, was to use state and federal money for vouchers that parents in the worst-performing public schools could use to gain access to private schools.

But Senate Bill 233, which would have paid schools $6,000 per student, was defeated in the Georgia Assembly’s last legislative session by the Democratic opposition.

Critics said money would be taken out of the public school system to help those who can already afford some of the private school bills.

Maynor said the reasoning was flawed.

“It doesn’t really even matter how you get this opportunity. What matters is how quickly you can give them that opportunity,” she said.

“So Democrats prefer to say: let’s wait and fix the broken system.

“Well, I’m almost 50. And the system has been broken for over 50 years. So how much longer do you want to wait?

Another hot topic was the bill to create an oversight commission for prosecutors.

Democrats opposed the measure, which they said was aimed by Republicans to rein in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her prosecution of Trump for fighting the 2020 election results.

“This wasn’t about Donald Trump,” Maynor said.

After becoming the victim of a stalker, she discovered that the prosecutor in the case was friends with the defendant’s lawyer. This is the kind of thing that stricter controls could have prevented, she said.

Corwin Monson, a former campaign volunteer, was sentenced to a year in prison and two years probation in 2021.

Tougher requirements for prosecutors, she added, would also increase the rate at which police are prosecuted for fatal shootings, a huge problem in the black community.

“This bill is about prosecutors not doing their jobs,” she said.

In 2021, she was also one of three state House Democrats to support a GOP bill to limit counties’ authority to cut police funding.

Over time, she found herself isolated within her party.

“It was stressful. I would walk into a room with Democrats and they would roll their eyes at me,” she said. “They were literally standing in my face, pointing their fingers in my face.”

She announced her defection on July 11, saying she was kicked out by her colleagues for questioning policies that the rest of the caucus perceived as an article of faith.

She said that should be a lesson for Democrats if they want to preserve Georgia’s Electoral College in next year’s presidential election.

“I think Democrats are not listening to voters. I think they are listening to themselves,” she said.

“And they will lose, because the one who actually listens to them, who actually listens to the voters, is the one who will get their votes.”