New Jersey Rep. Mikie Sherrill, the Democratic nominee for governor, announced on July 25 that she has chosen Centenary University president Rev. Dale Caldwell as her running mate.
“I’m proud to select Dale Caldwell as my lieutenant governor running mate,” Sherrill said, “because we share a commitment to public service and challenging the status quo.”
Caldwell is a pastor at Covenant United Methodist Church in Plainfield, N.J., and has served 26 years on the school board in New Brunswick, the town where he lives. Caldwell has also spent many years as a tennis player and coach. He served as president and CEO of the United States Tennis Association (USTA) Eastern Section, founded the Black Tennis Hall of Fame, and was inducted into the Eastern Tennis Hall of Fame. In 2023, Caldwell assumed the role of president at Centenary University, becoming the first person of African descent to hold this position at the private Methodist university.
Sherrill’s announcement that Caldwell would be joining her campaign served as a counterpoint to the choice made by her Republican Party opponent, Jack Ciattarelli, who selected Morris County Sheriff Jim Gannon as his lieutenant governor running mate.
“Mikie Sherrill and I represent a different kind of leadership that sees possibilities,” Caldwell said while accepting Sherrill’s offer, “not a blind commitment to doing things the way they’ve always been done. My life, much like Mikie’s, has been dedicated to service: to my church, my students, and my community. That’s why I’m honored and humbled to join Mikie’s ticket. The Sherrill administration will be focused on creating opportunity for the people of New Jersey — lowering costs so families can get ahead and stay ahead.
“While we will be a voice for the people, Jack Ciattarelli will be a voice for Trump and the MAGA movement that is costing New Jersey our wallets and our freedoms.”
Caldwell comes from a family with a tradition of activism. His father, the late Rev. Gilbert Caldwell, was deeply involved in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement; he marched alongside Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in the historic Selma “Bloody Sunday” march of 1965 and attended the 1963 March on Washington.
N.J.’s nearly 1.2 million Black residents
Rev. Dr. Charles Boyer, pastor of Trenton’s Greater Mt. Zion AME Church and founder of the advocacy organization Salvation and Social Justice (SandSJ), said the Sherrill campaign’s choice of Caldwell as the state’s potential second-in-command is significant. The position often means being selected to lead a state agency, and depending on the agency, that could mean ensuring the delivery of critical community support services.
If Caldwell wins the race with Sherrill, he will also continue the new tradition of serving in a role that makes the highest-ranked Black politician in the state capable of filling in for New Jersey’s governor. Caldwell would be following the paths carved by the current lieutenant governor Tahesha Way and the late Sheila Y. Oliver, who served as second lt. governor.
Being the state’s second in command also means addressing some of the issues facing New Jersey’s nearly 1.2 million Black residents. Strategies for tackling those issues were discussed during the second Statewide Meeting for the Black Agenda, held at the Second Baptist Church in Long Branch last Saturday.
Boyer, who spoke at the Black Agenda meeting, told the AmNews that Black Agenda concerns in New Jersey are huge: “Whether it’s the issues around segregated education and school-funding formulas; whether it is the Black maternal health issues and the infant mortality crisis in the state of New Jersey, things need to be dealt with. Whether it’s healthcare as a whole, whether it’s the racial wealth gap (which I think, in many ways, is chief among all of these things that feed into this), issues surrounding housing, affordable housing, homeownership, and the Black business community not receiving a fair share of contracts with the state, as well as concerns about the criminal justice system and overpolicing — these are all relevant,” Boyer said.
He added that he thought Ciattarelli’s choice of a sheriff as his lieutenant governor pick in a state that has “a documented history of racist policing, to pick a law enforcement person, a sheriff, I think is a signal to Black people.”
Although Ciattarelli has tried to make inroads with Black voters by promoting a “Blacks for Jack” faction, Boyer rebuffed that. “It’s one thing to show up at places and shake hands and put your arms around people. It’s another thing to show your values by who you take endorsements from and who you pick.”
On September 18, Boyer’s Salvation and Social Justice organization will host an event for more than 100 Black clergy members from across the state. The event will give attendees the chance to listen to and ask questions of New Jersey’s 2025 gubernatorial candidates. Each candidate will have a separate time slot to speak to the audience.
The Sherrill campaign has already confirmed their attendance, while confirmation from Ciattarelli’s campaign is still pending.