N.J. Gov. Mikie Sherrill has selected her new lieutenant governor after Caldwell resigned in scandal, sources say
Sherrill will tap Shirley Emehelu for the role after former Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell resigned in September after investigators found evidence of sexual harassment.
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill is expected to select Shirley Emehelu to serve as lieutenant governor, according to sources familiar with the decision.
Emehelu will replace the Democratic governor’s 2025 running mate Dale Caldwell, who resigned in September at Sherrill’s urging after an independent investigation determined he had sexually harassed a woman.
Emehelu had already taken on some of Caldwell’s duties as acting secretary of state.
An outside law firm produced a 61-page report following a monthslong investigation that found Caldwell made inappropriate comments to women and violated ethics rules. Caldwell, a minister and the the former president of Centenary University, denied the accusations but resigned, saying he did not want to distract from the administration’s work.
A spokesperson for Sherrill declined to comment Friday.
This will be Emehelu’s third job in Sherrill’s 10-month-old administration.
Sherrill’s initially picked her to lead the State Office of the Comptroller, but moved her over to the Secretary of State Office after Caldwell resigned on Sept. 25.
“She has the judgment to run our elections – and the strength to stand up to Trump’s attacks on voting,” Sherrill wrote about Emehelu in a social media post that day. “I have full faith that Shirley and the team at the Department of State will make sure all eligible New Jerseyans can make their voices heard this November.”
Lieutenant governors in New Jersey are not paid but derive a salary by leading a cabinet-level department in state government.
The Secretary of State’s Office has been under scrutiny since Sherrill disclosed in July that 6,600 non-citizens had been registered to vote through the Motor Vehicle Commission’s motor voter process in 2023 and 2024. The governor said about 400 illegally casted ballots.
Emehelu was once employed by the law firm of Chiesa Shahinian & Giantomasi, which Sherrill selected to investigate how the voter registration snafu happened.
Emehelu also served in former Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy’s Administration as executive assistant to the attorney general, who is the chief law enforcement official in the state.
Like the governor, Emehelu was a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office. She was Chief of Asset Recovery and Anti-Money Laundering and also led numerous prosecutions on financial fraud cases during her nine-year tenure.
She earned her undergraduate and law degrees from Yale University.
