Garrett Michael Hayes

Garrett Michael Hayes (born February 10, 1956)[1] is a U.S. politician from Georgia. He was the Libertarian Party of Georgia's candidate for governor in both 2002 and 2006.

He was born in California to screenwriter John Michael Hayes and Mildred "Mel" (née Hicks) Hayes. Garrett was raised in Maine and moved back to California in 1969, where he later attended Beverly Hills High School and California State College at Bakersfield. He moved to Georgia in 1991 and currently serves as the secretary of the Cobb County Libertarian Party.

After serving in a number of roles with the both county and state Libertarian organizations in Georgia, Hayes sought and won the party nomination for governor in 2002 and again in 2006. Hayes received 2.3% of the vote in 2003 and 3.8% of the vote in 2006.

In his second run at office, Hayes set several benchmarks for third party politics in the state, beginning with being the first Libertarian to run twice for governor.[2] Hayes’s campaign was the first Libertarian gubernatorial campaign to produce and run television advertisements in Georgia.[3] He also garnered the highest polling numbers to date for a Libertarian gubernatorial candidate in the state, polling as high as 9% in one non-partisan poll,[4] leading to press speculation that Hayes might force an unprecedented runoff election[5][6][7] between incumbent Republican Sonny Perdue and Democratic rival Lieutenant Governor Mark Taylor. Though a runoff did not in fact result, Hayes still gathered both the highest number and the highest percentage of votes for a Libertarian gubernatorial candidate in Georgia.[2]

Hayes currently co-hosts a weekly Libertarian-themed political radio talk show[8] on radio station WHIE in Griffin, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta.