After running twice for the Georgia legislature against an entrenched incumbent, Northeast Cobb resident Micheal Garza is taking aim at another long-time elected official in a domain where he’s been very active.
Garza, who owns a web development business and has been a vocal opponent of Cobb County School District leadership, is seeking the Democratic nomination for Post 4 on the Cobb Board of Education.
He’s facing retired Cobb teacher Susan McCartney in the primary election (here’s our profile of her) for the right to challenge three-term incumbent David Chastain in November.
Chastain is unopposed in the Republican primary—we’ll be interviewing him during the general election campaign.
In an interview with East Cobb News, Garza said in reference to the Cobb school district that he’s running because “I see a lot of the great things that we do, but I see a lot of room for improvement.
“It’s the right time, it’s the right moment.”
Early voting in the primaries began Monday and continues through May 15; consult our early voting guide for more information.
Garza’s campaign website can be found by clicking here; he was defeated by Republican State Rep. John McCarson in Georgia House elections in 2022 and 2024.
The Post 4 race is considered a crucial one given the GOP’s 4-3 majority status, and it’s the only seat among the three up for election this year that is in Republican hands.
Post 4 includes most of the Sprayberry, Kell and Lassiter high school attendance zones (see map below), and it was redrawn in 2022 to maintain most of its previous boundaries in partisan redistricting battles that preserved that Republican majority.
Garza, a native of Texas, and his wife are the parents of a daughter who attends Keheley Elementary School. He’s been involved in PTA activities at the school and with the East Cobb County Council of PTAs.
He’s been better known as a leading member of a group of critics of the Cobb school district in recent years.
The Cobb Community Care Coalition focuses on advocacy for racial and social justice and inclusion, and has been outspoken on other hot-button issues facing the district, including school book removals, school safety and the tenure of Superintendent Chris Ragsdale.
Garza has sounded off on many of those themes during public comment periods and elsewhere, critical of the “intense partisanship” he blames Republicans for fomenting.
Those votes on many key issues have proliferated in recent years, after what had been a 6-1 GOP majority was reduced in 2018.
“All of these things speak to a board that wants to hold power,” Garza said, adding that the redistricting saga is what prompted him into this race.
(Another Cobb Community Care Coalition figure, former Cobb school counselor Jennifer Susko, is taking on Democratic incumbent Nichelle Davis in the Post 6 race that includes some of the Wheeler attendance zone. We will be publishing profiles of both candidates shortly.)
Even though Post 4 was redrawn by the GOP-led legislature to favor a Republican, Garza says a Democrat can win it, and he is touting his regular involvement as an advantage.
“I’m somebody who is in our schools all the time,” Garza said. “I’m closer to the parents and the educators themselves.”
He said he wants to be an advocate for families and students he says are being ignored by the district, or who are afraid of retaliation if they speak out.
Some of those issues concern curriculum matters, special education and board-superintendent relations.
He said he hears from parents “a lot” about special education needs.
“We have a lot of amazing educators and parapros,” Garza said, but added that he hears about a lack of communication “when [concerns are] brought past the local level.
“These are conversations the board should be having. I’m not saying that I have all the answers, but there are conversations we can have as a board in partnership with the community and our educators.”
When the board ended public airing of public comments at board meetings last year, Garza said that’s another example of the Republican majority—at the behest of Superintendent Chris Ragsdale—heading off public criticism.
He also thinks the district is unwise to remove books from school libraries that Ragsdale has said are sexually explicit and inappropriate for minors.
Garza thinks that’s a function that “we should be putting in the hands of educators and media specialists” and not a committee close to the superintendent’s office that’s been reviewing such materials.
On school safety issues, Garza thinks it’s important for parents to educate their children on gun safety and “to lock up their firearms” at home.
He said metal detectors in schools are “problematic,” but has questions about how the district is spending money with a cyberintelligence firm as a partner and on a “vapor wake” specialty dog detection system in high schools.
The latter couldn’t detect a gun at Hillgrove High School, Garza said, adding that “I don’t think we should be spending money on unproven solutions.”
Garza said if he’s elected, he would do more than be a yes-man for Ragsdale—which is what he thinks the Republicans have been doing for too long.
“I will ask questions, especially ‘is it a good idea?’ ” Garza said. “It’s our job as board members to question” what’s brought before them by the administration, on any number of issues, which he also said includes other academic matters and school transportation.
He also favors changing board policy that now allows only the superintendent or chairman to place items on the agenda unilaterally. Other board members must get at least three other votes, which Garza says deliberately freezes out Democratic members.
Should Democrats gain the majority, Garza said he wouldn’t do anything dramatic regarding Ragsdale’s tenure, which Republicans claim would be endangered with party switch.
“I am going to meet with the superintendent to discuss the priorities of the district,” Garza said, noting that the board could become non-partisan after 2028.
“I especially want to have a good relationship with the superintendent. And I would have to govern in which I have to listen to everyone.”
Related:
- Cobb Commission candidate profile: JoAnn Birrell, District 3
- Cobb Commission candidate profile: Chris Wasserman, District 3
- Seven East Cobb precinct locations to change for 2026 elections
- East Cobb Early Voting Guide for the 2026 primary election
- East Cobb News explainer: How we cover politics and elections
- MORE: Visit the East Cobb News Politics & Elections Page
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