Mark Herndon made a mistake.
The Democratic candidate for Hamilton County mayor, in an emotional moment of heated frustration, sent threatening texts to several Republican members of the Hamilton County Board of Education.
The messages, sent in October following three separate votes by Republicans on the board to end a yearslong contract with a vendor to provide mental health services to students, were made public via a report this week from the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
“Your children are humiliated to be your kids,” Herndon, months before he announced his run for county mayor, wrote in the text message, obtained by this paper and verified to be sent to three board members. “Jesus already cast you to the depths of the sea! Based on the gospel. You’re better off if we were to lynch you, tie weight to your neck and throw you in the TN river.”
Lobbing such language at anyone, an elected official or not, is not something anyone should do. Herndon was wrong to send those messages.