Murphy taps NJ Secretary of State Tahesha Way for lieutenant governor job

Nancy Solomon

and

Louis C. Hochman

Published Sep 7, 2023

Modified Sep 8, 2023

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Secretary of State Tahesha Way will be New Jersey's next lieutenant governor.

Monmouth County Clerk's Office

Nancy Solomon

and

Louis C. Hochman

Published Sep 7, 2023

Modified Sep 8, 2023

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New Jersey’s next lieutenant governor will be current Secretary of State Tahesha Way, Gothamist has learned.

Gov. Phil Murphy will announce his selection Friday morning in Trenton, a source with knowledge of the decision confirmed. The source was not authorized to disclose the decision prior to the announcement. Her nomination will not require Senate confirmation.

The decision was first reported by NJ.com and the New Jersey Globe.

Way, 51, succeeds Sheila Oliver, who died Aug. 1 of an undisclosed illness at 71 years old. Oliver had been the state’s second-ever lieutenant governor, after the post was created through an amendment to the state constitution in 2006. She was both the first Black woman to lead New Jersey's state Assembly and win statewide office.

The day of Oliver’s death, Way described her as “cherished friend, mentor, and role model to me and countless other African American women who have chosen a career in public service.”

Way, who has been secretary of state since February 2018, oversaw the 2020 election that was largely conducted via mail due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As secretary of state, she also oversaw business, the arts and tourism.

She chaired the state’s Complete Count Commission to encourage participation in the 2020 Census and was the first Black president of the National Association of Secretaries of State for its 2022-2023 term, and continues to serve on its board.

Way was previously an administrative law judge for the state and a member of the Passaic County Board of Chosen Freeholders, serving as its director in 2019. She’s a former special counsel for that county’s board of social services and a council member of the state Highlands Water Protection and Planning Council, according to her Department of State biography.

She’s also a past board member for the Institute for Women’s Policy Research think tank.

At Brown University, Way served as vice president of the college’s NAACP chapter. She additionally has a juris doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law, where she clerked for the Virginia Legal Aid Society and the United Steelworkers of America, the biography states.

This post has been updated to correct the location where Murphy will announce his selection for lieutenant governor.

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Nancy Solomon

Louis C. Hochman

After about two decades in (mostly) New Jersey-focused commercial print, digital and digital-but-radio-adjacent news, Lou stumbled into member-supported news in early 2021, as the editor and CEO of Montclair Local. There, he (hopes he) expanded enterprise, brought more sophistication to digital storytelling and moved the nonprofit newsroom closer to long-term financial sustainability. He helped lead the Local to its fourth consecutive General Excellence award from the New Jersey Press Association — the NJPA's highest honor with judges noting the paper's work to strip away layers of government opacity, to hold power to account, to make news accessible for more members of the community, to share the stories and concerns of more facets of the community and to tell compelling stories across multiple media. He's excited to continue the same ethic — news as a public service — at NYPR as the New Jersey and suburbs editor, drawing on the extraordinary talents of reporters including Karen Yi and Nancy Solomon. Lou lives in Philly (that commute!) with his partner and their two cats, about whom and about which he speaks incessantly.

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