‘Mr. Mayor’ Goes to Class

On a typical weeknight, graduate student Thomas Emens ’25 might finish one of his classes at the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), close his laptop, and shift into another role: mayor of Jamesburg, New Jersey. As the town’s chief elected official, he fields calls from constituents and attends meetings of the borough council, which he served on during his last two years as an undergraduate.

Emens, 23, a master’s in public affairs student in the Scholars in the Nation’s Service Initiative, is one of the youngest elected officials in New Jersey and likely one of the few college students in the country simultaneously running a municipality. In a recent special election for mayor, he won with 57% of the vote and more than 1,000 votes total. Almost 6,000 people live in Jamesburg, which is about a half hour east of Princeton, and 52% turned out to vote. He was sworn in on Dec. 3.

Emens’ family goes back around eight generations in Jamesburg, and the community “is sort of a way of life for me,” he said. “I got involved because I felt that I could help make things better.”

That involvement began in middle school with community theater and raising money for different charities and causes, followed by volunteer work with a community green team, cleaning up different areas in the town. At 17, Emens joined the board of trustees at the library, leading a revitalization project.

His experience, especially learning from his community members throughout his job as a trustee when he was a senior in high school, led Emens to run for borough council in 2022, amid infighting in the town’s Democratic Party. “I think everyone approaches with good intentions; we just had different approaches to it,” he said. He won the race and later was selected by the council as council president in 2024 and 2025.

“Getting involved in politics wasn’t something that I intended to do, but kind of seemed like a vehicle to help us move things forward in town and address some of the big problems that we had,” Emens said.

In his time as council president, Emens briefly served as acting mayor before ceding the role. (The law required a Republican to serve as interim mayor until the special election was held last fall.)

Emens has focused on stabilizing Jamesburg’s finances. The borough was on the state’s transitional aid program, “effectively a state bailout,” so he worked to balance the budget. His priorities include controlling costs, especially health insurance and labor contracts, and expanding the tax base through economic development.

At the same time, Emens has been building an academic career shaped by many of the same concerns. After graduating with high honors from Middlesex College, he transferred to Princeton, where he graduated magna cum laude with a degree in politics. His senior thesis, advised by Professor Nolan McCarty, examined how mayoral election cycles affect tax levies in New Jersey.

Emens said that his schedule is very busy, as the role of a mayor is “24/7, 365 days a year,” but he has found a way to manage his time.

On campus, students often call him “Mr. Mayor.” As an undergraduate, he served as the president of the Princeton Transfer Association and worked at the Emma Bloomberg Center for Access and Opportunity, supporting first-generation and low-income community college students and military veterans. These experiences reinforced his belief in upward mobility and government and politics as a vehicle to expand it.

In the classroom, Emens’ dual roles often intersect. His professors ask him to weigh in on topics with his perspective working in politics, specifically in SPIA classes, and are generally supportive of his work. “I feel that I’m serving some purpose with the background and perspective that I have, and I didn’t have to put on an act to do it,” he said.

“Only in a place like Princeton am I able to do something like this.”