Late Friday, an unknown challenger emerged against Lubbock Mayor Dan Pope for the upcoming municipal election.

Self-described Texas Tech student John Cothran filed to run against the incumbent Pope for mayor. The filing was accepted by the city on Thursday, but not announced until Friday afternoon.

According to Cothran's Facebook profile he is from Carrollton, Texas and came to Lubbock to attend Texas Tech University.

During the past month, some of Cothran's most-recent public Facebook posts have been concerning gun control. Here's a screenshot of the posts, edited for profanity (direct link to post #1, post #2, and post #3):

John Cothran- Public Facebook Posts Feb. 2018
John Cothran, Facebook
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Lubbock Mayor Dan Pope was first elected as mayor in 2016 after serving on the Lubbock ISD Board of Trustees. Mayor Pope was previously being challenged by attorney Charlie Dunn, but he withdrew his candidacy last week.

Meanwhile, it's unknown if Cothran has previously run for office and/or served as an elected official.

The municipal election is scheduled for Saturday, May  5, 2018.

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