Residents on Atlanta’s west side will decide today which Democratic primary contender they want to take on incumbent Mesha Mainor in a November general election matchup that could serve as a benchmark for GOP attempts to gain support among Black voters.
Mainor is the Black former Democratic lawmaker from Georgia’s 56th Congressional District who made national headlines last year when she switched parties to become a Republican after her support for a GOP-backed school voucher bill fractured her relationship with state Democratic Party leaders.
The move surprised and angered some voters in Mainor’s left-leaning district, where Black people make up 47% of the population and the largest racial demographic share of the electorate. The territory includes parts of Midtown and the Atlanta University Center as well as the neighborhoods of Vine City, English Avenue, Hunter Hills, and Mozley Park.
District 56 has never elected a Republican, according to House Democratic Caucus Chair Billy Mitchell, D-Stone Mountain. Retired state House Rep. Mable Thomas, aka “Able Mable,” represented the region in the Georgia General Assembly for years prior to Mainor’s first election win in 2021.
“That district is among the most progressive in all of Georgia,” Mitchell told Capital B Atlanta last week.
Even Mainor acknowledges the odds of winning reelection are stacked against her. The average general election voter doesn’t know every local candidate on the ballot, but they recognize the “D” or the “R” next to a candidate’s name, and it’s common to cast ballots along party lines.
Black constituents like Hunter Hills resident Deborah Wright have characterized Mainor switching parties as a betrayal.
“We voted for her because she was a Democrat,” Wright told Capital B Atlanta of Mainor. “We don’t want to be represented by a Republican.”
But other less-partisan constituents credit Mainor for being a vocal advocate on issues they care about, such as preventing idling trains from blocking roads in Hunter Hills and erecting a noise barrier along Interstate 20 in Mozley Park.
Neighborhood resident Keith Palmer has spent the past three years leading a grassroots campaign to get the noise barrier built. He said Mainor hasn’t solved the problem yet, but she’s done more to address it than most other elected officials.
“More than anything else, she’s been responsive, whereas some of the other people have not,” Palmer said. “We send emails and she actually responds to them.”
Mainor said she’s still dedicated to serving the Black community, regardless of her party affiliation.
“I’ve represented you tirelessly and successfully for the past four years,” she told Capital B Atlanta of her constituents. “Although I switched parties, I am still advocating for you with the same priorities of public safety, health and human services, educational opportunities for children at risk and small business and workforce development training for those traditionally underserved.”
The Competition
Mainor is running unopposed in today’s District 56 Republican primary. The three Democratic Party candidates are local school teacher Bryce Berry, Colliwood Productions CEO Corwin Monson and Adalina Merello, who works as a waitress and a college research assistant. (Chiropractor Dawn Samad and local business owner William “Leonard” Watkins withdrew from the race earlier this year.)
Who is Bryce Berry?
Age: 22
In what city/neighborhood do you currently live? Atlanta/English Avenue
Current job title: Teacher, Atlanta Public Schools
Where did you graduate high school? Mary Institute and Country Day School in St. Louis. Class of 2019
Where did you graduate college? Morehouse College Class of 2003
Major: Economics
Primary career path: Education and politics
Top issues: Education, housing, health care
Campaign website: https://www.berryforga.com/
Berry is a seventh-grade math teacher, nonprofit leader and Young Democrats of Georgia president who wants to overhaul Georgia’s education system, increase affordable housing, and continue Democrats’ push to fully fund Medicaid expansion.
The Democratic Party of Georgia doesn’t endorse primary candidates, but party leaders such as House Democratic Caucus Chair Billy Mitchell and outgoing Minority Leader James Beverly, D-Macon, have thrown their support behind Berry, who has been involved in politics since the age of 13.
The St. Louis native got his start in politics by organizing during 2014’s Ferguson, Missouri, uprisings following the police killing of Mike Brown, a Black teenager who had been accused of stealing from a local store. Berry’s policy ideas include using some of the state’s estimated $16 billion budget surplus to invest more money in public school infrastructure, hire additional school counselors, and give K-12 educators additional raises.
Berry said he currently earns $54,000 annually as a first-year teacher and supports giving teachers throughout Georgia a guaranteed starting salary of $65,000 per year. He also opposes the school voucher program that Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law this year with Mainor’s support.
“We’re overlooking the needs of our most vulnerable constituency — our students,” Berry told Capital B Atlanta during a recent phone interview. “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].”
Repealing the statewide ban on rent regulation that has been in place since 1984 and lowering the income threshold for homestead exemptions to help seniors living on fixed incomes keep their homes are also campaign priorities.
“The income threshold is simply too high right now,” Berry said.
Who is Corwin Monson?
Age: 50
In what city/neighborhood do you currently live? West Midtown
Current job title: CEO of Colliwood Productions
Where did you graduate from high school? Tri-Cities High School in East Point. Class of 1991
Where did you graduate college? Did not graduate. Attended Alabama State University and the University of West Georgia.
Primary career path: Audio engineer and media services entrepreneur
Top issues: Education, Full Medicaid expansion, repealing rent regulation ban
Campaign website: https://corwinmonson.com/
Monson, an entrepreneur with a history of working in local politics, is also one of the most controversial candidates on local ballots this year. The Atlanta native and married father of three has been endorsed by former District 56 Rep. Mable Thomas, who serves as his political consultant, and Fulton County Commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr.
Thomas pointed out that Monson has served as a political staffer behind the scenes in the Democratic Party for many years, including for the incumbent Mainor.
“I believe he is the most knowledgeable and best qualified to serve the [diversity in] District 56,” Thomas told Capital B Atlanta of Monson via text message on Friday.
But Monson’s relationship with Mainor soured after she accused him of stalking her for several years, accusations that eventually led to Monson being jailed and pleading “no contest” to criminal charges.
In separate recent phone interviews, Monson and Mainor acknowledged that he worked on Mainor’s 2019 Atlanta City Council campaign before parting ways following a disagreement. That’s where their agreements end: Mainor says she fired Monson over his behavior, while he claims he quit after discovering her conservative leanings. Monson was arrested and served nine months in the Fulton County Jail in 2021, eventually pleading no-contest to charges of aggravated stalking. While he was locked up, recordings of jailhouse phone calls were made public in which Monson made disparaging remarks about Mainor.
Monson still maintains his innocence, claiming Mainor accused him of stalking her to discredit his claims about her politics, that police arrested him without fully investigating the accusations, and that he made his plea on the advice of his attorney in order to expedite his release from jail during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Mainor has also sued the county for its handling of her complaint against Monson.
“I pleaded no contest to get out of jail because I couldn’t get a fair trial,” he said. “I was left no choice.”
If he’s elected, Monson wants to repeal SB 233, the Georgia law that created the school voucher program passed by Mainor and other Republicans earlier this year, and overhaul the state’s widely criticized school funding formula, known as Quality Basic Education or QBE.
“It’s imperative that we fully fund our schools instead of taking money away from our schools and cherry-picking what kids can come here and what kids can do the school choice stuff,” he said. “We’re slowly slipping back into a resegregated school system.”
Like Berry, Monson supports repealing Georgia’s statewide ban on rent regulation to give local governments the freedom to directly affect rent pricing and increase the supply of affordable rental units in their area.
He also wants to ban corporations from reducing the supply of houses for sale by buying them up and refusing to sell them in favor of renting them out.
“We have to deal with what’s causing the rent to go up high,” he said.
Who is Adalina Merello?
Age: 42
In what city/neighborhood do you currently live? Atlanta/Vine City
Current job title: Research assistant at Cornell University. Waitress at Spoon Eastside
Where did you graduate from high school? South Eugene International High School in Eugene, Oregon. Class of 2000.
Where did you graduate college? Hunter College in New York City. Class of 2006.
Major: Political science, with a minor in urban affairs and planning
Graduate school: Cornell University. Graduation pending.
Primary career path: Politics and government.
Top issues: Mental health, women’s reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ rights
Campaign website: https://www.friendsofada.com/
Merello has spent more than 25 years working in policy and politics, including roles in constituent services for former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed.
The 42-year-old graduate student says her life experiences — she acknowledges previously being on food stamps and spending most of her life living paycheck to paycheck — gives her insight into the needs of many in Atlanta also struggling to make ends meet.
“I’m someone who’s walked the walk,” Merello said.
She also acknowledges battling mental health issues like many Americans, managing conditions that include PTSD, bipolar disorder, and depression with treatment and medicine. She intends to advocate inside the Gold Dome for others dealing with similar struggles across Georgia, following in the footsteps of former first lady Rosalynn Carter.
“I have a service dog, and I understand the fulfillment of having an animal to live a normal life,” Merello said. “I’ve gone through the process of needing services at low to no cost. I want to help people access those resources.”
A staunch supporter of women’s reproductive rights, Merello wants to repeal the abortion restriction law that was reinstituted in 2022 after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. She said there shouldn’t be any limits on abortion, and women should have the freedom to know what’s best for their bodies.
“I respect anyone who believes life begins at conception; however, I’m more concerned about the life of a young woman who already has four kids and can’t afford to have another one,” she said.
Merello also wants to overturn the statewide ban on transgender athletes participating in high school sports and the state’s ban on rent regulation.
“I’ve had a horrible time finding affordable housing in my life, let alone Atlanta,” she said. “When I moved her 12 years ago, it wasn’t such an issue, but now it’s a huge issue.”
