Photo: New Jersey Department of State
TRENTON, N.J. – Gov. Mikie Sherrill named Shirley U. Emehelu as New Jersey’s lieutenant governor and secretary of state on Monday, putting the former federal prosecutor alongside her in an administration focused on lowering costs, supporting businesses and expanding homeownership opportunities. Emehelu took the lieutenant governor’s oath at the end of the announcement.
Sherrill said Emehelu was being sworn into both positions that day. The oath shown in the Governor’s Office recording specifically names the office of lieutenant governor. Emehelu had already been leading the Department of State in an acting capacity.
The appointment places a lawyer with financial-fraud, public-integrity and state-management experience in one of New Jersey’s most visible executive roles. Sherrill said Emehelu would work with the full cabinet on lowering costs, supporting children and making government deliver for residents, while continuing to oversee elections, tourism, business support and cultural and civic programs as secretary of state.
Through the Department of State’s Business Action Center and Faith Action Center, Sherrill said Emehelu would also help advance the administration’s agenda for Black communities, including making it easier to start a business and buy a home and addressing disparities in education and health care. Those are stated priorities, not newly enacted benefits or funding commitments.
“As lieutenant governor, Shirley will be my partner in driving down costs, taking care of our kids, and building a government that delivers,” Sherrill said in the official announcement.
Watch announcement from the New Jersey Office of the Governor. The embedded video starts at the swearing-in; the full announcement and remarks are available in the same recording.
Emehelu said she would work to make life more affordable, expand opportunity and help children build a future in New Jersey. She tied those goals to how government operates, emphasizing honesty, integrity and transparency as well as policy.
“Good government is about prioritizing the people we serve,” Emehelu said. “It’s about honesty, integrity, and transparency.” She pledged to help fix broken systems and show up for people going through difficult times.
Sherrill described the appointment as historic, saying it was the first time New Jersey would be led by two women and that Emehelu, a Nigerian American, was the state’s first immigrant lieutenant governor. Emehelu said she was proud of what the milestone represented for Black and Nigerian-American communities and hoped it would encourage the next generation to serve.
Emehelu replaces Dale Caldwell, who resigned in September. Sherrill’s office said in a September statement that she accepted his resignation on September 25 and named Emehelu acting secretary of state.
Before that assignment, Emehelu served as acting state comptroller. Her official biography says she previously spent two years as New Jersey’s executive assistant attorney general, the third-ranking official in the Attorney General’s Office, where she helped oversee more than 500 lawyers in the Division of Law.
Her work there covered civil matters including environmental protection, civil rights, consumer and labor protection, firearms safety and data privacy. Earlier, she spent nine years at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, prosecuting complex financial-fraud cases and serving as chief of asset recovery and anti-money laundering, with responsibilities involving forfeiture and restitution for victims.
Emehelu also worked in private practice at CSG Law, including in banking and finance and white-collar investigations. She earned her undergraduate and law degrees at Yale, according to the biography. Sherrill said she had known Emehelu for more than a decade, both as a fellow parent in Montclair and as a colleague at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Newark.
For New Jersey businesses, the appointment connects the lieutenant governor’s statewide role with the Department of State’s business-support and tourism responsibilities. Monday’s remarks did not announce a new grant program, tax change, housing subsidy or budget allocation. The test ahead is how the administration turns its cost-of-living, business and homeownership priorities into specific policies and services.
JBizNews Desk | Trenton, New Jersey
© JBizNews.com. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution is strictly prohibited.
