Former Tabernacle Committeeman Justin Murphy will run for U.S. Senate as a Republican once again, having previously run for the same office in 2024 and come in a distant third place in the Republican primary.
Murphy kicked off his 2026 campaign against Senator Cory Booker last week in Medford, but it was little-noticed at the time; Politico first reported on Murphy’s campaign earlier today.
“Our kickoff event was fabulous – thank you to everyone who came out – looking forward to the June 2026 primary for US Senate,” Murphy said on social media. “Let’s beat Booker.”
Murphy is so far the only Republican to enter a statewide primary that remains remarkably murky with only a few months to go until the filing deadline. Several high-profile Senate challengers, among them former interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba and State Sen. Michael Testa (R-Vineland), are potentially in the mix, but state and national Republican leaders have little clarity on what the field will ultimately look like.
In 2000, Murphy was elected to a township committee in Tabernacle, a largely rural town in Burlington County’s Pine Barrens. Murphy didn’t seek re-election in 2003, though, and his political career hasn’t found much success since then.
When U.S. Rep. Jim Saxton (R-Mount Holly) retired in 2008, Murphy ran in the Republican primary to succeed him but lost to Medford Mayor Christopher Myers, who in turn lost to State Sen. John Adler (D-Cherry Hill) in the general election. Murphy tried again for the same seat in 2010, but lost the GOP primary to former NFL player Jon Runyan, who went on to unseat Adler.
Murphy faded from political view for more than a decade after that, only to re-emerge as a U.S. Senate candidate in 2024. Despite running an ardently conservative campaign that earned him a recommendation from NJ Right to Life, Murphy ended up as the third man in a two-candidate race between Mendham Mayor Christine Serrano Glassner and hotelier Curtis Bashaw, and got just 11% of the vote (though he did, at least, win Tabernacle).