Tammy Murphy
Tammy Murphy is an American political figure and activist who was the first lady of New Jersey from 2018 to 2026. A member of the Democratic Party, she was an unsuccessful candidate in the 2024 United States Senate election in New Jersey to replace Bob Menendez. She co-owns the professional women's soccer team Gotham FC with her husband, New Jersey governor Phil Murphy, and chairs the organization.
Early life and education
Tammy Murphy was born Tammy Snyder in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Her father, Edward, and mother, Jean, a British immigrant and former fashion model, owned what New York magazine described as an "empire" of car dealerships. Edward Snyder was Jewish.Murphy attended boarding school at Phillips Academy Andover, graduating in 1983. She graduated from the University of Virginia in 1987 with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications and English.
Career in finance (1987–1994)
After graduating college, Murphy went to work in finance as an analyst for Goldman Sachs in the real estate department from 1987 to 1989. She left Goldman at the age of 24 to work mainly at Investcorp in London for three years, from 1990 to 1993, but quit at the age of 27 "to marry Mr. Murphy in 1994 and move to Frankfurt, Germany, where he was working at the time." She has not "worked outside the home" since marrying. As of 2023,Murphy "describes herself as a homemaker on tax forms."
Gotham FC
Murphy and her husband are the founders and part owners of Gotham FC, a professional women's soccer team. They founded the team in 2007. Murphy serves as the club's chair.In 2018, media outlets reported that the team was "plagued by poor housing, subpar facilities, and mismanagement." In 2024, Politico reported that Murphy had been criticized because "the women's soccer team she and her husband co-own, Gotham FC, was found to have provided poor living and playing conditions, prompting Murphy to become more hands-on with the club."
Responding to the women's soccer team allegations, Murphy said that she and her husband were unaware of the players' conditions and allegations of abuse. After she became aware of the report detailing these allegations, Murphy "took a more active role in the team, renaming it Gotham FC and moving the players to Red Bull Arena in Harrison commencing a turnaround that culminated in the team's 2023 championship victory."
Nonprofit and private school work
Murphy has sat on the boards of her children's schools, the private Rumson Country Day School and the boarding school Phillips Andover, as well as on that of the Count Basie Center for the Arts, among others. While her husband was working as the United States ambassador to Germany from 2009 through 2013, Murphy, according to her biography, chaired meetings, gave speeches, and hosted meals and receptions to help further develop the German-American relationship. Murphy was appointed to the University of Virginia Board of Visitors in 2015.In 2014, in the run-up to Phil Murphy's campaign launch, she and her husband founded New Start New Jersey, a think tank to help "grow the middle class and jumpstart the economy in the state" that she chaired. It ceased operations in 2017 following his election and no longer maintains its research information.
Political involvement
Early political activities
Murphy grew up in a Republican family and continued to vote as a registered Republican in primary elections until 2014. She donated to George W. Bush's presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2004, as well as to Rick Lazio's Senate campaign against Hillary Clinton in 2000. Murphy has given to more than 300 candidates and committees since 2000, including Bush, Lazio, and the New Jersey Republican Party. She has also made donations to Democratic candidates, including Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, and Bob Torricelli. Politico and The New York Times have described Tammy Murphy as a "prolific fundraiser" for party leaders in the Democratic Party.Sources differ as to when Murphy became a Democrat. At a televised debate on February 18, 2024, Murphy stated she has been a Democrat "for ten years." Previously, Murphy, notwithstanding her primary voting record up to 2014 as a Republican, stated that she changed political parties in the mid-2000s based on her stances on issues such as abortion, gun control, and the environment. At a candidate forum at the County College of Morris in January 2024, she addressed the fact that she was previously a registered Republican due to her upbringing in a "moderately conservative" small-business family in Virginia and was always seeking GOP candidates who shared her values in education, the environment, and reproductive freedoms. "But over the years, I ran out of room," she said. "I realized I was a Democrat."
Her husband, Phil Murphy, became the Democratic National Committee's finance chair in 2006 and U.S. Ambassador to Germany in 2009. Following a large donation by the Murphys, Al Gore recruited her to be a founding member of the environmental group The Climate Reality Project. Al Gore has called Tammy Murphy "one of the smartest, most articulate, most committed environmental advocates that I've ever run across."
Murphy served as one of New Jersey's 14 presidential electors for Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
Work on husband's 2017 gubernatorial campaign
Murphy was active in her husband's 2017 campaign for Governor of New Jersey. Phil called her his de facto finance chair." Murphy chaired their "issue advocacy" committee, New Start New Jersey and Phil spent $20 million on his campaign. She also participated in campaign events with and without her husband. Phil Murphy was elected governor on November 7, 2017, and sworn into office on January 16, 2018.A November 2023 Politico report discussed how multiple women accused Phil Murphy's 2017 campaign, which Tammy Murphy helped run, of being a "toxic" environment for women, including campaign strategist Julie Roginsky and campaign volunteer Katie Brennan. A young woman, Julia Fahl, the future mayor of Lambertville, New Jersey, was in the room when an angry male staffer threw a chair; Fahl subsequently referred to the campaign in a statement as "toxic." Roginsky claimed the campaign was the most "toxic" and "misogyny"-filled working environment she had ever experienced, that multiple female staffers complained of misogyny to her, that she was unable to speak out due to a gag order, and that at least one misogynistic slur was shouted at her by a top campaign advisor. Katie Brennan claimed that a third top campaign staffer had sexually assaulted her, also claiming that she had attempted to tell both Tammy and Phil Murphy, but received no response. A fourth woman who worked on the Murphy transition team also complained of misogyny and stated she experienced a lack of support and immediate retaliatory ostracization, forcing her to quit.
In December 2023, Brennan, then an aide to Governor Hochul, criticized Murphy's failure to act in response to her entreaties. Murphy said that she and her husband were not aware of the allegations until The Wall Street Journal contacted them. In 2024, Murphy told a reporter in response to Brennan's criticisms, "I apologize to her. I feel badly for her because
First Lady of New Jersey (2018–2026)
Although she did not receive a salary or hold an official title, Tammy Murphy had acted on a policy portfolio in an unelected capacity. The governor made Murphy the first spouse of a New Jersey Governor to give her own speech at the inauguration. Governor Murphy additionally gave her an office, down the hall from his. Notwithstanding the lack of an official role for first spouse in New Jersey, Governor Murphy has listed his wife on the Office of the Governor's official government website as a member of his administration. The governor had also directed at least one member of his staff to report to Murphy as her chief of staff. NJ.com reported that Tammy Murphy "held a central role" in Governor Murphy's administration, citing anonymous state lawmakers and other political figures who have worked directly with the governor's office.Climate advocacy
In 2021, during her husband's gubernatorial term, Murphy was appointed Honorary Chair of the New Jersey Council on the Green Economy. Murphy was influential in global warming/climate change becoming part of school curriculum in New Jersey, making it the first and only state to do so.Maternal advocacy
Murphy is known in the state for advocating on behalf of pregnant and postpartum women and their infants. Governor Murphy has named his wife the "founder" of a state-funded entity for maternal health known as Nurture NJ. In 2021, Governor Phil Murphy signed legislation to launch a statewide, universal home visitation program for newborns. This legislation was a "key recommendation" from the Nurture NJ Maternal and Infant Health's Strategic Plan. The governor touted the effectiveness of Murphy's efforts in making New Jersey the second state in the nation to expand Medicaid coverage for women a full year after childbirth, which guaranteed health care for nearly 9,000 mothers across the state. At her U.S. Senate campaign launch, Murphy discussed her initiatives that targeted New Jersey's high maternal mortality rate, especially among minority women. She noted New Jersey's raise from national rankings on maternal death rates.The Star-Ledger editorial board in July 2023 praised "Tammy Murphy's good work on the maternal health crisis." In December 2023, however, the same editorial board disagreed with Murphy's assertion that New Jersey's maternal mortality rate had seen improvement because of her efforts: "Neither claim is true. We are making slow progress in some areas, and none in others, still lagging behind neighboring states and the nation as a whole on maternal mortality. As for the racial gap, it is as profound as ever." The Ledger also considered Murphy's claim that her initiatives had improved New Jersey's ranking on maternal death misleading, arguing that the change in ranking was more due to worsening outcomes in other states and not a decline in maternal mortality in New Jersey. The editorial also asserted that, while Murphy had made herself a "sturdy advocate" for maternal health, "there is some resentment in the Black community from leaders and advocates who feel pushed aside by the governor's wife, and sometimes ignored," including some Black lawmakers in the state, as well as qualified public health professionals in the field more generally.
According to the New York Times, Murphy was named in a gender discrimination lawsuit by four female troopers against the State Police for allegedly refusing to allow a trooper on the Murphy detail to pump breast milk in a carriage house at the family's $10 million estate in Middletown. The trooper alleged that she had requested permission to pump there given the allegedly dirty status of the security trailer. Allegedly, the first lady refused, saying such use was "not encouraged because of optics by guests who may be on the premises." The trooper alleged she was fired the next day from the coveted executive detail in retaliation. When asked about the lawsuit in an interview, Murphy stated that she could not comment fully on the litigation though it was not filed against her or her husband, stating "Anybody who should imply that I would be in any way, shape, or form discriminatory or not allow a woman to have all the benefits she needs after having delivered a baby or during pregnancy — it's flat-out wrong."