Although they campaigned largely independent of one another, siblings Weston and Coty Wamp were together at a joint party after the votes were tallied on the evening of Aug. 4, when Hamilton County voters elected them mayor and district attorney.
The election night rally featured a banner in the Edwin Hotel touting a "new generation" of leaders, with the 35-year-old Weston Wamp becoming the youngest Hamilton County mayor ever, and Coty Wamp, 33, becoming one of the county's youngest elected district attorneys.
The brother and sister team are among the youngest countywide elected officials in Tennessee and are less than half as old as some of the countywide elected officials at the Hamilton County Courthouse.
"I think it's an opportunity for us to build on a lot of momentum in our community but also address, with a type of intensity, the challenges our community faces," Weston Wamp said in a phone interview Thursday. "I think there's a sense of urgency that Coty and I will bring to our two very different positions that maybe the jobs have never had before."
(READ MORE: Wamps win Hamilton County mayoral and district attorney races)
Most of the county's constitutional officers will remain the same after the swearing-in ceremony Thursday, but the Wamps and Hamilton County Sheriff-elect Austin Garrett, 50, will step into shoes filled by older predecessors.
Excluding county commissioners, the average age of constitutional officers in Hamilton County -- taking into account the sheriff, register of deeds, mayor, district attorney, county clerk, property assessor and trustee -- will drop by about 10 years in September.
Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger, 67, and Sheriff Jim Hammond, 78, both opted to step down at the end of their current terms. Coty Wamp, meanwhile, defeated outgoing District Attorney Neal Pinkston, 47, in the Republican primary in May.
Hammond told the Chattanooga Times Free Press in an interview Thursday that he sees a generational shift in the makeup of elected leadership.
"I'm glad to see it's a younger generation," he said. "I don't mind telling you that I'm 78, and one of the reasons I'm retiring is, you don't think as sharp at 78 as you do in your 30s. ... I have found that even though with youth we worry a little bit, they usually step up to the plate when they get to that level. They get more serious about it."
Hammond added that Gary Gerbitz, who served as attorney general for 21 years starting in 1974, was about the same age as Coty Wamp when voters elected him to the same position. Wamp most recently served as the general counsel for the Sheriff's Office.
"A lot of people think, 'Well, they're too young to be there,'" Hammond said. "They forget that one of the best DAs we ever had was her age."
Currently, Wamp noted, Hamilton County government tends to be older and largely male-dominated.
"I believe across the country we're seeing a shift," she said by phone Friday. "It's not frowned upon for young people to get involved and put their name in the hat. Instead, I think even the older generation is thinking it's time for young people to step up, and in this election, I'm really proud of this county for doing just that."
Millennials, born between 1981 and 1996, already occupy leadership positions across the county in realms of business, development and investment, Coty Wamp said.
"They're my age, and they're Weston's age, but they're not represented in local government, and to me that didn't seem right," she said.
The Wamps, of course, are no strangers to politics. Their father, Zach Wamp, served in the U.S. Congress from 1995 to 2011 and gave up his seat to run unsuccessfully for Tennessee governor. Weston Wamp twice tried to fill the 3rd District Congressional seat his father held for 16 years, but he was defeated each time by Republican Chuck Fleischmann.
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Half the age of some officials, Wamps represent ‘new generation’ of Hamilton County leaders
Zach Wamp said he is proud both his children followed his political path into local government.
"The highest compliment that I ever had for my service is that both of my adult children would be willing to go through the hot fires of politics to serve the citizens," Zach Wamp said. "I'm excited for the county because it's probably time for younger people to step up and to lead. If you look at Washington, you see that it is really, really old. And if you look at this county, the leadership was probably also getting too old. It's sort of like the Baptist church. If you're not careful, it will age out. You've got to bring on the next generation."
Coppinger, the outgoing Hamilton County mayor, said even with his younger successor, most of the staff and the role of the county government within its state constitutionally-prescribed offices will continue as it has in the past.
Weston Wamp is also getting a few more weeks in transition than Coppinger did in 2010, when Coppinger, who was then a county commissioner, was named to replace Claude Ramsey when Ramsey resigned his county mayoral job to become Tennessee's deputy governor under then Gov. Bill Haslam.
"The good news is the campaigning is over, and you have to go to work, and you have to govern," Coppinger said. "It's harder to govern than it is to campaign, believe me. The real challenge is to have enough resources to do all of the things that you want to do and to find creative ways to do it."
As the new office terms begin Thursday, Hamilton County will still have plenty of political experience with most of the incumbent office holders re-elected for another term.
Hamilton County Clerk Bill Knowles starts his 13th four-year term Thursday. Knowles, 88, is tied for the longest county clerk service with Houston County, Tennessee, Clerk Robert Brown, who has also served as county clerk for 48 years.
Knowles said he keeps running and working at his job because he loves working with and serving others.
Even as one of the oldest county officials in the state, Knowles said he has tried to keep Hamilton County on the cutting edge of new technology. Two decades ago, Hamilton County became the first county in the state to allow motorists to renew their tags online.
"We had to do a sales job for the state to even allow us to do it, but it's worked out very well," Knowles said.
Bill Hullander, 76, has served as Hamilton County trustee since 2010. He was first elected to the Hamilton County Commission in 1998 at the age of 52 and remained there for 12 years.
"It just depends on experience," he said by phone. "I had run a business, and both of them (the Wamps) have been involved in politics with their dad in politics, so I'm sure things will go OK for Hamilton County."
Another constitutional officer, Property Assessor Marty Haynes, said he expects the Wamps will do a good job, but he doesn't anticipate a dramatic shift in the operations of county government. Now 63, Haynes was elected to the County Commission in 2012 before opting to run for property assessor in 2016. He was re-elected to the position in 2020.
"He'll have a different outlook than maybe we do," he said, "but I think Mayor-elect Wamp understands what county government has to do, the things we're bound by state law to do."
Across Tennessee, other counties have elected executives and mayors in their 30s. Indeed, Weston Wamp won't even be the youngest mayor in Tennessee. In the Middle Tennessee county of DeKalb, Matt Adcock was elected to be the next mayor at age 30.
Wamp added that there's also historical precedent for Hamilton County voters to elect young leaders. Former U.S. House Rep. Bill Brock was elected to represent Tennessee's 3rd Congressional District at 32, and Wamp's father was elected to the same seat at 37.
(READ MORE: Hamilton County Mayor-elect Weston Wamp announces transition team)
Wamp said he and his wife, Shelby, are particularly invested in the 20-year future of Hamilton County because that's the community their children will grow up in.
As the founder of the Millennial Debt Foundation, Wamp has sought to highlight the generational magnitude of the United States' ballooning national debt. As mayor, he and his fellow leaders will also be tasked with making a dent in the $1 billion worth of deferred maintenance at county school facilities.
"A 20-year future, while unrealistic to some politicians, puts me at 55 and Shelby at 50," he said. "That's a very real trajectory for us. ... There's no question that we're going to enter office with an appetite for making decisions that we know might not be popular today. May not be popular in the years that I'm in office. But sometimes leaders like that have to come around who are willing to cast a vision for the future, sell things that are difficult to understand today."
Contact David Floyd at dfloyd@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6249. Follow him on Twitter @flavid_doyd.