MABLETON — First-time candidate Karyn Harrison hopes the time she has spent in the community will help her at the polls.

Harrison has become well known in south Cobb for spending time in the schools; serving as vice president of the South Cobb Council for District 9, where she’s volunteered for eight years; and coaching an Upward basketball team.

Harrison has a bachelor’s degree from Clark Atlanta University and 12 years of experience in radio and television and 12 years in real estate and mortgage consulting. She spent a short time unemployed but is now an outside sales representative.

She doesn’t support the charter school constitutional amendment because of her “unwavering” commitment to public education and would only vote for a Teach For America contract if it didn’t cut current staff, she said.

“The biggest problem I would like to solve if elected would be to provide the students of the south Cobb area with a first-class opportunity from pre-K until graduation to learn from highly motivated and qualified teachers and to achieve academically exceeding better than before and be prepared to graduate and go into the world prepared to make a difference,” the 55-year-old Mableton Democrat said.

Harrison said she would not promise not to vote for a tax increase but isn’t in favor of one.

“If a tax increase support what the students need, then I will support the students,” she said.

The 30-year Cobb County resident has a number of teachers on her campaign trail who work both inside and outside the post she is seeking, and her daughter Alexis, a student at Tennessee State University, is hosting voter registration drives and encouraging her friends to vote.

“That is her summer job,” she said. “She’s happy to help her mother.”

“I will go to Walmart and spend an hour talking to people, but now I mention what I’m doing, then they scream,” she said. “(Fundraising) is tough, but I have someone in my life that knows how to campaign, and they are doing a pretty good job getting me some money.”

According to Harrison’s finance report, she has raised about $2,500 as of June 30, compared to incumbent David Morgan’s $1,300 and first-time candidate Dr. Bobby Allen’s $4,600. She has $1,541 on-hand.

Harrison will be vying for the southwest Cobb seat against Morgan and Allen in the July 31 primary. Whoever wins will more than likely take the seat in January because no one from the Republican Party qualified for the race.