Micheal Garza, a Democrat, is running for Cobb County School Board District 4 in the Nov. 3, 2026, Georgia general election. He faces Republican David Chastain.

Garza, a co-founder of the Cobb Community Care Coalition, said on his campaign website that board policies "are being driven by political partisanship that has done harm to our students and our teachers," adding, "Our focus should be on education, not elections."

Candidate information

Name: Micheal Garza

Party: Democratic

Birthplace: McKinney, Texas

Education: Bachelor's degree in chemical engineering, Rice University, 1995

Professional career: Co-founder and CEO of Webvolve, 2009 to present. Product and account manager and sales executive at EarthLink, 1998 to 2008.

Experience and public service

Garza co-founded the Cobb Community Care Coalition, according to the Cobb County Courier. He said the volunteer group advocates for students and families within Cobb County Schools. He said the coalition helped change graduation policy to prevent discrimination against students in special education, won accommodations for children with individualized education programs and pushed for summer lunch programs, according to his Ballotpedia response.

He ran twice for state office.

Garza was the Democratic candidate for Georgia House of Representatives District 46 in 2022 and 2024, according to Ballotpedia. He has served as scholarship chair of the East Cobb County Council of PTAs and as a PTA leader in Cobb County Schools, according to his campaign. He has also volunteered with the Salvation Army, Open Hand Atlanta, Never Alone Food Pantry, Worldwide Marriage Encounter and Cobb Parents for Safe Schools, according to Ballotpedia.

On the issues

The following positions are drawn from Garza's responses on his campaign website and his responses via BallotReady.

Family and community engagement: Garza said the district can "better respond to the needs of our families" by actively engaging parents rather than shutting them out of decisions. He said parents and teachers should be seen as partners, not adversaries.

School funding: Garza said he supports fully funding public education. An older platform discussed using pandemic relief funding to address gaps; that statement does not establish a new source of school funding for 2026.

Special education and student success: Garza said the district should measure student success by how well it serves students with individualized education programs and in special education, not by Milestone scores or graduation rates alone.

Teacher support and class size: Garza said the district must reduce class sizes, ensure adequate counselor and mental health supports, and roll back restrictions on educators' ability to create a curriculum that meets the needs of their classrooms.

School safety: Garza said he supports common-sense measures to reduce gun violence while protecting the rights of responsible Georgia gun owners, including universal background checks, safe-storage awareness programs and sensible waiting periods on new gun purchases.

Sources: Public campaign materials, published candidate profiles and the public records linked above. Policy statements are attributed to the candidate; funding or implementation details are included where available.

The East Cobb Beacon did not receive a direct questionnaire response from the candidate and does not endorse candidates.