Republican Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp still faces no primary challenger for his reelection, but a Democrat has stepped up to run in the May Democratic primary.
Mark Herndon, 46, made public Tuesday his intent to run against Wamp. He has never run for public office before. Best known for being an advocate for mental health services in Hamilton County schools after his 14-year-old son died by suicide, Herndon says he wants to run to provide better representation for the county as a whole, he told the Chattanooga Times-Free Press.
“I think that this county is champing at the bit for somebody to say, ‘I see you, I hear you,'” Herndon said in an interview. “We don’t need a mayor that uses our county as a springboard.”
Herndon must get 25 signatures on his election petition to qualify for the Democratic primary May 5. There is currently no challenger. He would then go on to face Wamp, a Republican who has no challenger in his own party, in the county’s general election Aug. 6.
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Mayor Wamp is the son of former Congressman Zach Wamp and brother of Hamilton County District Attorney Coty Wamp — who, like Weston, took office after being elected in 2022. He was defeated by U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann in the Republican primary for Tennessee’s 3rd Congressional District in 2012 and 2014. He successfully ran for county mayor in 2022, defeating Democrat Matt Adams by about 8,000 votes.
Steve Gill is editor and Publisher of TriStar Daily.
