Dem Governor Demands Resignation of Her Own Lt. Governor

Hands holding a resignation letter envelope across a desk — Photo: Elle Aon / Shutterstock

A governor just fired the first shot at her own running mate, and he’s refusing to go quietly.

Quick Take

New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill called for Lieutenant Governor Dale Caldwell to resign by Friday after an outside law firm’s investigation.
The 61-page report found Caldwell engaged in sexual harassment and violated state ethics rules twice.
Caldwell denies every allegation and has told allies he will not step down.
His attorney says the investigation was “unfair and one-sided” and lacked due process.

An Outside Investigation Turns Into a Public Showdown

Governor Mikie Sherrill hired a private law firm months ago to look into complaints about her own lieutenant governor, Dale Caldwell. The inquiry started after an anonymous complaint and ran for more than four months before wrapping up. On Thursday night, Sherrill released the findings and gave Caldwell a blunt deadline: resign by Friday, or stay and fight a governor who no longer wants him in her administration.

The report, written by an outside law firm, did not pull punches. It found Caldwell made a romantic advance toward a woman connected to a staffer, tried twice to get his girlfriend a promotion within state government, and told a female staff member that “you young women are looking for young sperm”. Investigators also said he brought guests to ticketed events without ethics clearance or payment, and kept it up even after being warned to stop.

What the Report Actually Concluded

Sherrill did not soften her language when she announced the findings. “The investigation found that the lieutenant governor engaged in serious, repeated violations of state policy and failed to uphold the responsibilities of his office,” she said, adding that she was “calling for his resignation and giving him until tomorrow to do so”. That is about as direct as a governor can get toward her own second-in-command, someone she personally elevated to the job less than a year earlier.

The comment about “young sperm” became the detail every outlet repeated, and for good reason. It is the kind of remark that leaves little room for interpretation once it lands in an official report. Combined with the promotion attempts for his girlfriend and the unauthorized event guests, the picture investigators painted was one of a pattern, not a single lapse in judgment.

Caldwell Pushes Back Hard, Denies It All

Caldwell is not rolling over. Through his attorney, Thomas Calcagni, he disputed all three findings and attacked the process itself, calling it “unfair and one-sided”. Caldwell’s camp says the investigation skipped basic due process protections he believes he was owed before the governor made the report public.

This is not a new position for Caldwell. Back in May, months before the report became public, he wrote directly to the state’s chief ethics officer denying everything. “I have never asked anyone out on a date, ‘hit on,’ or pursued anyone romantically while conducting official business as Lieutenant Governor and Secretary of State,” he wrote. He called the accusations “inaccurate, misleading, and completely false” and said he was confident the facts would clear his name.

Caldwell’s May letter also raised a pointed argument that deserves a fair hearing: he noted he is “the first single Black man to serve at this level in government” and suggested that “false accusations, especially against people of color, seem to be commonplace” in the current political climate. That claim does not erase the specific findings in the report, but it is a real, named objection from the accused, not vague doubt, and readers weighing this story should know he raised it directly to investigators before the report ever went public.

Gov. Sherrill released a report concluding Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell violated workplace and ethics rules and called for his resignation today.

Caldwell denies it. Sherrill can’t fire him; removal requires resignation or impeachment.

What happens next:https://t.co/AbsrzwXNMJ

— The Dispute Index (@disputeindex) September 25, 2026

A Familiar Pattern in Ethics Fights Involving Public Officials

This standoff follows a script seen again and again in state capitols and Congress alike. Once a misconduct report goes public, the fight almost always shifts from the facts themselves to the fairness of the process and whether resignation is truly the only option. Officials facing serious findings rarely admit fault outright; instead, their lawyers challenge the investigation’s legitimacy while the accuser, often a governor or agency head, insists the findings speak for themselves.

Sherrill picked Caldwell as her running mate and then, within months of taking office, ended up demanding his resignation over findings from an investigation she herself ordered. That is an unusual position for any governor, and it says something about how seriously she treated the initial complaint that she was willing to turn on her own pick rather than bury the report. Whether Caldwell resigns, gets removed, or digs in for a longer fight will likely depend on how much political cover New Jersey Democrats are willing to give him now that the findings are public.