Rep. Mikie Sherrill on Friday officially named Dale G. Caldwell, president of Centenary University and longtime civic leader, as her running mate in the 2025 New Jersey gubernatorial race.
Caldwell, 65, is a pastor, educator, and former state official who has served as assistant commissioner in the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs. He will join Sherrill on the campaign trail beginning Saturday.
“I’m proud to select Dale Caldwell as my lieutenant governor running mate because we share a commitment to public service and challenging the status quo,” Sherrill said in a statement. “Dale is the son of civil rights leaders who marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma — and he’s followed in their footsteps as a lifelong advocate for equity and opportunity.”
Caldwell currently leads Centenary University and serves as pastor of a church in Plainfield. He served 26 years on the New Brunswick Board of Education and has held leadership roles across the nonprofit, academic, and public sectors.
Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot and federal prosecutor, is running for governor against Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli in the November general election, who recently tapped Morris County Sherriff James Gannon to be his running mate.
The Ciattarelli campaign was quick to criticize the pick. Campaign manager Eric Arpert described Caldwell as a “career political insider” and argued that the Sherrill-Caldwell ticket offers more of the same.
“New Jersey is headed in the wrong direction on taxes, crime, education, overdevelopment, and energy costs,” Arpert said. “Mikie Sherrill’s response is to pick a political insider. That tells you all you need to know. Jack represents real change, and together with Sheriff Jim Gannon, that’s exactly what New Jersey will get on Day One.”