NEWARK -- The fired adjunct professor who made national headlines when she was ousted for her comments on a Fox News television show is joining the Green Party ticket as a candidate for lieutenant governor.

Lisa Durden, 53, of Newark, announced Tuesday she was joining Seth Kaper-Dale's gubernatorial campaign. Kaper-Dale is a pastor at the Reformed Church of Highland Park.

"I've never heard of a politician who stood strong on the angle of social issues in addition to crime, education and health care," Durden told NJ Advance Media. She says she was particularly drawn to the core message of Kaper-Dale's platform: The last are the first.

"He feels from the bottom up is how we should work, it's about priorities," she said.

Durden, who has never run for public office and switched her party affiliation from a Democrat last month, said Kaper-Dale speaks to the issues she's spent her life advocating for: Black Lives Matter, women's issues and the fight against mass incarceration.

"What's right sometimes isn't always comfortable," she said.

Durden was an adjunct communications professor and was fired after a June 6 appearance on "Tucker Carlson Tonight" in which she defended the Black Lives Matter movement's decision to host a Memorial Day celebration in New York City to which only black people were invited.

The college's newly appointed president, Anthony Munroe, said Durden was fired after the college received complaints about her comments even though she did not affiliate herself with the college while on the show.

Kaper-Dale, who has often spearheaded fights to keep undocumented immigrants in his community, said that Durden "is exactly the voice that New Jersey needs to listen to."

He said he learned about her once he heard about her ouster and said he "immediately knew this was the person who should be my lieutenant governor."

"I'm not at all worried about picking someone who is divisive," Kaper-Dale told NJ Advance Media. "I think the lens that she brings is very much like my lens but in other ways it's different. It's a lens worn by a black woman instead of a white man. It's an absolutely essential voice in terms of crafting what the last and the first looks like in New Jersey."

Karen Yi may be reached at kyi@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at @karen_yi or on Facebook.