Listener supported, WNYC Studios.

Brian Lerr on WNYC.

Now we continue to interview candidates in the primaries for Mayor of New York and Governor of New Jersey.

This time, Sean Spiller, he's president of the New Jersey Education Association, the big teachers union in the state, and a former mayor of Montclair, now running in the Democratic primary for governor.

Mr. Spiller, thanks for coming on for this. Welcome to WNYC today.

Yeah, Brian. Thanks for having me on. Appreciate it.

And I'll let you introduce yourself a little bit to our listeners who may not know you,

as well as they know some of the other prominent elected officials who were running and who've

been on. Where'd you grow up? How'd you get into

politics? Oh, wow. I smiled on that question. I'm always like, well, how far back do you want to go?

You know, listen, I say it as a kid who came to this country. I was born in Jamaica. My family

immigrated to the United States when I was pretty young. And, you know, my parents chose this

country and our state because they knew of the wonderful opportunities that

were here. My mom was a math teacher in Jamaica, hence, you know, the focus on quality education.

I became a high school science teacher myself, anatomy and physiology, life sciences, became a labor

leader, you know, fighting for folks as well. And, you know, certainly had the opportunity to serve

as a councilman and mayor for 12 years in my town here of Montclair. And, you know, certainly had the opportunity to serve as a councilman and mayor for

12 years in my town here of Montclair. And, you know, all of these experiences have kind of shaped who I am and

certainly also why I'm running for governor. I've seen the challenges. I know it has to be done. And I know

it matters who's fighting for us. And, you know, that's why this moment is so important. You know, going from mayor to union president is a fairly unusual path.

What for you ties your running of Montclair to the job of representing the state's teachers?

You know, for me, I've done both of them, you know, kind of concurrently. And I've always found that

...