Local school teacher Bryce Berry says he didn’t cry Tuesday night when Atlanta news outlets declared him the winner of his state House District 56 race against GOP incumbent Rep. Mesha Mainor. But he did admit to being “incredibly overwhelmed.”
“It’s all just an incredible honor,” Berry told Capital B Atlanta late Tuesday evening after leaving his election night watch party at Wicked Wolf Atlanta in Midtown. “I’m incredibly honored to be holding this seat.”
Berry made overhauling the state’s education system one of his top priorities after voicing strong disapproval for Mainor’s support for the state’s current school voucher program, which critics contend will lead to majority-Black public schools receiving less funding.
“We’re overlooking the needs of our most vulnerable constituency — our students,” Berry told Capital B Atlanta in May. “When you have a teacher in office, you won’t see things like book bans and attempts to pass things like ‘Don’t Say Gay’ [laws].”
The Morehouse College graduate received nearly 84% of the more than 22,600 votes cast in the dark-blue district that includes the majority-Black west Atlanta neighborhoods of Mozley Park, Hunter Hills, and the West End. His opponent only earned about 16% of votes counted, with 100% of precincts reporting in the race, according to Fulton County elections data.
At age 23, Berry is now poised to become the youngest member of the Georgia General Assembly in modern memory, according to state Rep. Billy Mitchell, D-Stone Mountain. His win has been a breath of fresh air for Georgia Democrats in an election cycle largely defined by aging candidates.
“I’ve been there 22 years, and he’ll be the youngest that has been there at least in recent history,” Mitchell told Capital B Atlanta Wednesday morning.
Berry is younger than former state Rep. “Able” Mable Thomas was when she was first elected in 1984 at the age of 27. Thomas couldn’t be reached for comment on Wednesday. State Rep. Carl Gilliard, D-Savannah, recalled serving as Thomas’ youth coordinator in 1984, when she also was chosen as a delegate for then-presidential candidate Jesse Jackson.
He said Berry seems to be walking a similar path.
“That is a district that is one of the prime districts in Atlanta,” Gilliard said. “I think [Berry] is going to do an extraordinary job.”
Berry’s focus on becoming a progressive Democratic voice for change in the Republican-led Georgia General Assembly helped him score a landslide win over Mainor, who drew scorn from many of her constituents who felt betrayed when she left the Democratic Party last year.
“We voted for her because she was a Democrat,” Hunter Hills resident Deborah Wright told Capital B Atlanta of Mainor during the spring primary season. “We don’t want to be represented by a Republican.”
Mainor was gracious in defeat, saying voters in her district “chose the candidate they want to represent them.”
“Although I was not successful as a Republican candidate, I’m grateful that I was able to provide life-changing and historic resources to the communities I serve,” she wrote in an Instagram post early Wednesday morning. “I had a blast tonight celebrating Republican policies to address the economy, the U.S. border, and creating opportunities for the working class.”
Policy priorities
During primary season earlier this year, Berry told Capital B Atlanta that his policy priorities include using some of Georgia’s estimated $16 billion budget surplus to invest additional money in public school infrastructure, hire more school counselors, and grant K-12 educators a $65,000-guaranteed starting annual salary.
He also wants to repeal Georgia’s statewide ban on rent regulation and reduce the income threshold for homestead exemptions to help retired senior homeowners living on fixed incomes.
Berry is a St. Louis native who organized during 2014’s Ferguson, Missouri, uprisings following the police killing of Mike Brown. He’s also the former president of Voters of Tomorrow Georgia, who says he plans to be a progressive voice for fellow Gen Zers who are tired of being told to wait for their turn to lead.
“We’re a generation that has been told to wait for too long,” Berry said. “We’re not waiting any longer.”
