New Jersey’s lieutenant governor, Dale G. Caldwell, twice sought to have his girlfriend promoted to a state job, made a sexually charged comment to a staff member and ignored warnings to adjust his behavior, according to a report Gov. Mikie Sherrill released Thursday evening.

Sherrill called on Caldwell to resign by Friday, noting that investigators concluded that his behavior constituted sexual harassment and violated state ethics rules.

A lawyer for Caldwell, however, gave no indication that a resignation was imminent. In written statements, the lawyer, Thomas Calcagni, called the investigation one-sided and said that it “lacked the requisite due process.”

The report’s findings, Calcagni added, were “palpably deficient and create a dangerous and challenging precedent for anyone who wishes to defend against anonymous conjecture and character assassination.”

The strongly worded rebuttal suggested that a standoff between the governor and her second-in-command was possible, and Sherrill’s supporters began to speak out in her defense.

“Governor Sherrill is absolutely right,” Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., wrote on the social platform X. “The conduct described in the investigative report is totally unacceptable.” He said that Caldwell should resign “for the sake of our state.”

The 61-page report was the culmination of an inquiry Sherrill, a Democrat, initiated in May after receiving an anonymous letter that claimed Caldwell, a former president of Centenary University, had behaved inappropriately toward women. Caldwell, who is Black, has denied the allegations and suggested that race and gender were at play.

Sherrill had hired Christopher Porrino, a former New Jersey attorney general who served under former Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, to lead the inquiry. Porrino’s report, submitted Wednesday to the governor, said that Caldwell’s behavior “constituted sexual harassment and was derogatory or demeaning.”

In one instance, in April 2026, Caldwell, 66, made a romantic advance toward a female staff member’s friend, investigators found. After being rebuffed, the lieutenant governor told the staff member that ambitious women needed a man who was in a position to help them. “But you young women are looking for young sperm,” he said, according to the report.

Caldwell denies ever making the comment, and Calcagni noted that the report made clear that a state trooper who was within earshot told investigators that he did not hear the alleged exchange.

There were no claims that Caldwell had any inappropriate physical contact with a subordinate.

The report also notes that Caldwell brought nonpaying guests to seven events, in violation of ethics rules, and that he recommended his girlfriend for a promotion to a “senior leadership position” even after being notified that his conduct was under investigation. He did not disclose his relationship with the woman, who did not get the promotion and no longer works in state government, the report said.

Caldwell, Calcagni said, had never ordered anyone to promote the woman and did not control the hiring decision. “There is a difference between failing to disclose a personal relationship when forwarding the resume of a qualified job applicant,” he said, “and actually using the power of public office to secure a job or financial benefit for someone.”

The position of lieutenant governor was created by referendum in 2005, and Caldwell is only the fourth person to serve in the role. He stands in as governor when Sherrill is away and also oversees the Department of State, putting him in charge of elections, including November’s midterms.

Those responsibilities made the timing of the inquiry particularly problematic for Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot who has said that she hoped to use her decisive victory last year to influence national Democratic politics. A federal political action committee she set up had endorsed a slate of like-minded veterans. But Sherrill, a former member of Congress, has not gone outside the New York metropolitan region for weeks, even as other Democrats crisscrossed the country in the run-up to the midterm elections.

Sherrill had not publicly acknowledged the investigation, first revealed three weeks ago by The New Jersey Globe, until Thursday.

The inquiry began just four months after she and Caldwell were sworn in. An anonymous complaint, signed by “a Concerned NJ Resident,” claimed that Caldwell, who is divorced, had brought “uninvited female guests” to events and handed out business cards to women he hoped to date.

“Enough is enough. He should not be trying to get dates while he is traveling on the taxpayer’s dime,” the person wrote, adding, “Please put a stop to this shameless and corrupt behavior.”

Soon after, Sherrill hired Porrino’s firm to investigate the claims.

Caldwell, in a written response to the allegations, said that the complaint was “driven by misinformation, false assumptions and what seems to be a personal vendetta against me.” One of the guests, he noted, was his college-aged daughter.

“Unfortunately, in this current political environment, false accusations, especially against people of color, seem to be commonplace,” he wrote.

Porrino’s inquiry appeared to expand beyond the claims in the anonymous letter.

At least 17 people were interviewed as part of the investigation, which was conducted jointly by Porrino and Shontae D. Gray, a former state and federal prosecutor. The report notes that Caldwell had undergone six trainings on workplace policy and ethics rules.

Sherrill called the violations “a pattern of behavior that does not meet the standards of this administration.”

“The ethical lapses persisted,” she said, “despite multiple warnings and trainings.”

The investigation, and questions about how it had been handled, had engulfed state politics for weeks.

Republicans immediately called for Caldwell’s resignation. Some of Sherrill’s allies privately questioned why an inquiry that began months ago was not disclosed, even after an outside law firm had been hired to investigate the claims. And the state’s NAACP conference had urged caution.

Caldwell had served on the board of education in New Brunswick, New Jersey, where he lives, but was relatively new to politics when Sherrill tapped him last year as her running mate.

He had founded a charter school in Asbury Park, New Jersey, and spent two decades as president of the Educational Services Commission of New Jersey, which operates schools for children with autism and at-risk behaviors.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Tracey Tully/Kriston Jae Bethel
c. 2026 The New York Times Company