Sean Spiller / Screenshot NJ.com
New Jersey’s teachers union blew a staggering $40 million on a gubernatorial candidate who finished in an embarassing fifth place.
The New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) spent the money supporting their own president, Sean Spiller, in his campaign to succeed incumbent Governor Phil Murphy.
NJ Spotlight News reports:
Supporters at Sean Spiller’s election night watch party at Montclair Brewery said that record-high spending was worth it since Spiller’s campaign helped elevate issues important to teachers and working-class people.
The union’s spending on behalf of its president contributed to making Tuesday’s election the most expensive race for governor on record in New Jersey.
Spiller’s campaign raised the least amount of money of the six Democrats running to replace Gov. Phil Murphy, raising $438,817 through May 27.
But an independent committee funded by the NJEA had $40 million to spend on promoting Spiller’s campaign, making him the highest-funded candidate in the race by about $20 million.
That’s based on a review by New Jersey campaign finance officials of state-based independent campaign committees.
Spiller finished the race with 86,972 votes, equivalent to around 10.7 percent of the vote.
Despite their massive campaign, the NJEA ended up spending roughly $460 per vote—likely even more when accounting for voters who were already committed to supporting Spiller.
Perhaps even more embarassingly, Spiller’s X account boasts a pathetic 344 followers, with his posts barely even registering on his supporters timelines.
Thank you to everyone who has supported and invested in our campaign, I am so grateful! We are going to keep up the fight here in New Jersey & I’ll be right there with you! pic.twitter.com/jSYpIuKGpL
— Sean Spiller for Governor (@spillerfornj) June 13, 2025
The race was eventually run by Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill, who will face former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli in November.
Despite his humiliating performance, Spiller defended the decision of his union to spend tens of millions of dollars bankrolling his campaign.
“When it’s one of our own, when it’s an educator, when it’s us, all of a sudden it’s a big story,” he said when asked about his big spending.
“Why do we always have to hand it to someone else for it to be OK? We decided we don’t have to do that.”
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