Philip D. Murphy took the oath of office for a second term as New Jersey’s 56th governor on January 18, 2022. He is the first Democratic governor to serve a second term in 44 years.

Governor Murphy currently serves as Chair of the Democratic Governors Association. The Governor also completed his year-long Chairmanship of the National Governors Association in July of 2023. He is the first governor to have led both organizations simultaneously.

Since taking office in 2018, Governor Murphy has focused on building a stronger, fairer, and more affordable New Jersey. Under his leadership, New Jersey has made strides in growing the state’s economy and creating new economic opportunity while shrinking longstanding inequities, restoring fiscal responsibility to state government while expanding critical investments, and delivering real tax fairness and relief, including 14 tax cuts for New Jersey’s middle class and seniors.

Governor Murphy guided New Jersey from being the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic to a model state for following the highest level of public health standards and data-driven response, implementing among the nation’s most robust vaccination efforts and fostering a strong economic recovery. Over the course of two years, the Murphy Administration has provided billions of dollars in state and federal relief to small businesses, schools, homeowners, tenants, and landlords, and middle-class families.

Governor Murphy has put a special emphasis on making New Jersey more welcoming to both established high-tech enterprises and start-up companies in the innovation economy. In January 2021, he enacted a new set of state economic incentives, focused on promoting the growth of new small businesses and innovative startups, enacting the state’s first tax credits for historic preservation, and expanding credits for brownfields reclamation and redevelopment, among other initiatives.

Under the governor’s leadership, New Jersey has emerged as a leader in the deployment of clean energy technologies, including one of the nation’s most-aggressive proposals for the development of offshore wind. He helped break ground at both the Paulsboro Marine Terminal and the South Jersey Wind Port in Salem County, where more than 1,500 new jobs will help secure New Jersey’s place as a global leader in offshore wind component manufacturing and logistics.

The Governor has also focused on making New Jersey a leading location for film, television, and digital production, enacting a new incentive program that drew more than half-a-billion dollars in investment to New Jersey in 2021.

Under Governor Murphy’s leadership, New Jersey had already emerged as a national leader on a number of nationally significant issues prior to the pandemic. He secured the dignity of working families by moving to a $15-per-hour minimum wage, guaranteeing earned sick days, and expanding paid family leave. The governor has enacted initiatives to provide a tuition-free public college education for qualified students. He has embraced policies that have driven down the cost of healthcare. He has expanded protections for the state’s immigrant and LGBTQIA+ communities. And he has enacted and proposed gun safety laws to combat gun violence and promote responsible gun ownership.

Governor Murphy has also made New Jersey a model state for social justice through fostering the state’s nascent adult-use cannabis industry, enacting among the country’s strongest automatic voter registration measures, restoring voting rights to individuals on parole or probation, expunging the records of numerous non-violent offenders, and creating the nation’s strongest provisions for environmental justice, alongside numerous other new laws. He has also put a focus on eliminating stigma and promoting a compassionate approach to tackling opioid misuse.

Career Prior to Becoming Governor

From 2009 until 2013, Governor Murphy served as the United States Ambassador to The Federal Republic of Germany, appointed by President Obama.

Governor Murphy has been deeply engaged in civic life and philanthropic pursuits. In 2002, he began his involvement with 180 Turning Lives Around, a Monmouth County women’s shelter where he ultimately served as board president from 2005 until 2009. That experience led the Governor and First Lady to found the teen helpline 2nd Floor.

Additionally, Governor Murphy was a member of the Board of Directors of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, a non-profit organization which works with local community development associations to transform urban neighborhoods across the country, from 2002 until 2009.

In 2005, he chaired the New Jersey Benefits Review Task Force. He also co-chaired, with former Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano and the late Professor Roger Wilkins, a national task force on public education in the 21st Century for the Center for American Progress.

In 2006, he was appointed National Finance Chair of the Democratic National Committee by Chairman and former Vermont Governor Howard Dean. During his tenure, which ran until 2009, Democrats recaptured both houses of Congress, and his efforts helped build the infrastructure that elected President Obama in 2008.

In 2014, Governor and Mrs. Murphy founded New Start New Jersey, a “think-and-do tank” dedicated to seeking new policy directions to grow New Jersey’s economy and middle class. The Murphys partnered with the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University to create the New Start Career Network, which specifically helps long-term unemployed New Jerseyans over age 45 get back into the workforce.

From June 2015 until March 2017, Governor Murphy served proudly on the national Board of the NAACP.

In December 2018, Governor Murphy was named one of four honorees of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Ripple of Hope Award from the nonprofit organization run by the family of the late Sen. Kennedy for his efforts to ensure social justice and equal economic opportunity. Among the other three honorees was former President Barack Obama.

Prior to entering public life, Governor Murphy worked for over twenty years at Goldman Sachs, starting as an intern in 1982 and ending in 2003 as a member of the firm’s management committee. During his business career, he led offices in Frankfurt, Germany, and Hong Kong.

Family Life

The youngest of four children of the late Walter F. Murphy, Sr. and Dorothy Murphy, Governor Murphy was born in Boston, Massachusetts on August 16, 1957, and was raised in both Newton and nearby Needham, Massachusetts.

The Governor is a graduate of Needham High School, Harvard University, and The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He has been awarded numerous honorary degrees.

Governor Murphy and his wife, Tammy Snyder Murphy, reside in Middletown, Monmouth County, and are the parents of four children: Josh, Emma, Charlie, and Sam.