Last June, NJEA members from across the state came together to endorse NJEA President Sean Spiller to be New Jersey’s next governor. We have endorsed candidates before, but this is the first time we’ve been able to endorse a fellow educator and NJEA member for the highest office in New Jersey.
The 2025 gubernatorial election is a historic opportunity for us to move New Jersey forward, and there is no better candidate to do that than Sean Spiller. Sean is a science teacher, a union advocate, a former mayor and councilman, and a husband and father with a long history of community service and leadership. He is the only candidate who will protect the progress we have already made and help us reach new heights for students, educators and hardworking New Jersey families.
Sean knows that New Jersey is a great place to live, to work and to learn, but he also knows that families here struggle to make ends meet. Sean will be a governor who focuses on what our students, educators and the hard-working families who call New Jersey home need.
Learning from the past
NJEA members know the damage that can be done by a hostile New Jersey governor. In his two terms, hostile Gov. Chris Christie gutted pensions and health benefits, broke the school funding formula, underfunded local schools by billions of dollars, ignored the state’s pension obligation, pushed privatization of educational support professionals’ jobs, supported vouchers and tuition tax credit schemes, imposed onerous paperwork burdens, weakened tenure protections and railed against unions.
That’s why, in 2016-17, NJEA members spent more than a year working to elect a pro-education successor to Christie.
Since then, Gov. Phil Murphy has worked with us to drastically lower health insurance costs and deliver important job protections for educational support professionals. He is fully funding our pensions, reversing a decades-long trend. He has provided record funding to local districts as he works to undo the damage done by Christie. He’s brought stakeholders together to work on evaluation reform and the elimination of student growth objectives (SGOs). Seven years after he took office, our schools and our state are moving in the right direction.
Building on the momentum
So, what’s at stake in in the 2025 election? In a word: everything!
New Jersey’s next governor will determine whether we build on the progress of the Murphy years or return to the insults, attacks and financial devastation of Chris Christie. There will be a new administration in Washington, D.C. this year that is determined to undermine public education to make way for a takeover by private and religious schools funded by our tax dollars. That’s why New Jersey’s next governor will also help determine whether our state continues to have the best public schools in America, where teachers are free to teach, and students are free to learn.
In 2025, Sean Spiller is the candidate we can count on to protect our progress, to move us forward, to stand up for our democracy and to make New Jersey a model for the rest of America.
How can we elect Sean?
So how do we elect Sean Spiller and ensure a better brighter future for our students, our families and ourselves?
- Commit to voting for Sean in June’s Democratic gubernatorial primary. With the support of NJEA members, their families and other New Jersey residents who share his vision of a New Jersey that works for all of us, Sean has a clear and obvious path to victory.
- Volunteer with Sean’s campaign to help spread the word that New Jersey has a great pro-education, pro-working family candidate for governor.
- Donate to his campaign to make sure Sean’s message gets out to everyone in New Jersey.
- Talk to your colleagues, friends and family in New Jersey about why you are supporting Sean Spiller for governor in 2025.
Finally, keep your eyes and ears open for more information about how you can be part of NJEA’s campaign to help New Jersey elect America’s best education governor.
Sean Spiller is the right choice for NJEA members AND for New Jersey
As a parent, educator and union leader, Sean Spiller believes New Jersey needs to work for everyone.
For educators, that means we can count on him to stand up for our values and priorities:
- School funding – Sean knows that every student in every district deserves the resources necessary to learn, thrive and grow. He will work to make sure New Jersey has a fair system to fund all public schools.
- Pensions – Sean understands the importance of a secure, reliable pension after a career of dedicated service to students. He will work to strengthen our current pension system and to make sure it is funded so you can confidently count on it.
- Unions – Sean knows that unions built the American middle class. He will stand up for the right of working people to unionize and will work with unions in New Jersey to make sure our state is a great place to live, work and raise a family.
For working families, that means we can count on him to hear our voices and address our concerns:
- Affordable housing – As mayor of Montclair, Sean helped pass that city’s first rent control rules. As governor, he will work to ensure every New Jersey family can afford a place to live.
- Access to health care – Everyone deserves access to affordable health care. Sean will work to lower costs and widen access. And he will always stand up for reproductive freedom.
- Protecting democracy – The right to vote, the freedom to read and the right to speak up against injustice will be protected in New Jersey when Sean is governor. He believes in our democracy and will defend it against anyone in New Jersey or Washington D.C. who tries to undermine it.
Visit seanspiller.com to learn more about Sean’s values and priorities.
Donate to Sean’s campaign.