Tammy Murphy is a possible U.S. Senate candidate

In the days following Bob Menendez’s indictment last week, New Jersey First Lady Tammy Murphy has received calls from political advisors and key Democrats locally and in Washington about running for the United States Senate in 2024, the New Jersey Globe has confirmed.

If she runs, Murphy could bring serious fundraising and policy chops to the Senate race and satisfy a push by Democratic women to elect the state’s first woman U.S. Senator.   Some Democrats think she can maximize the turnout of suburban women to help down-ballot candidates.

Five high-level Democratic insiders, all speaking on the condition of anonymity, said they have had some discussions about their willingness to support her for the Senate if she were to run.  But all stressed that while Murphy is listening to elected officials, advocates, and donors who want her to run, she is not yet at a point where she is actively considering it.  Indeed, one person suggested that her immediate focus is to fulfill her and her husband’s commitment to raise $1 million for Democratic legislative candidates running this fall.

Murphy faces two options: take on three-term incumbent Bob Menendez in the Democratic primary or seek an open seat if Menendez changes his mind following his indictment on federal bribery changes and doesn’t run again.

Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown), a three-term congressman and a former Obama White House national security staffer, announced on Saturday that he would run for the Senate.  Other possible candidates include Reps. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-Long Branch), Josh Gottheimer (D-Wyckoff), and Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair), and Senate Majority Leader Teresa Ruiz (D-Newark).

It’s unclear whether a sitting governor can successfully deliver organization lines to his wife if she seeks a U.S. Senate seat.

Her husband, Gov. Phil Murphy, is term-limited and will leave office in January 2026.  He called for Menendez’s resignation on Friday, hours after the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York unsealed the indictment.

As a prospective candidate, Murphy potentially has some significant policy accomplishments in her own right.  She has earned plaudits for her leadership of a statewide plan to address New Jersey’s maternal and and infant health crisis.  Her Nurture NJ plan has substantially reduced an epidemic of maternal and infant mortality in communities of color.

Murphy also has national political connections; she’s been the governor’s fundraiser-in-chief since he began showing interest in running for governor about eight years ago.  She has an enormous network of friends and contacts from national Democrats, including the Democratic Governors Association that her husband headed twice.

In Phil Murphy’s first gubernatorial campaign, he loaned $10 million to jumpstart his campaign.

If she were to win, Murphy would become the first woman to represent New Jersey in the United States Senate.  New Jersey Democrats have not nominated a woman Senate candidate since 1930, when they picked a 32-year-old party insider as their candidate for a ten-week stint.  Republicans have nominated a woman Senate candidate three times but have failed.

The early front-runner for the Republican nomination is Mendham Borough Mayor Christine Serrano Glassner.  A former George W. Bush administration appointee, Serrano Glassner’s husband, Michael, held national leadership roles in Donald Trump’s 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns.

A Fairleigh Dickinson University poll released in February put the First Lady’s name recognition at 73%, with favorables among Democrats at 27%-3%.  But the Murphys, who skipped the political scene, have no natural county base to rely upon.

Murphy, 58, worked at Goldman Sachs, where she met her future husband in the 1980s.  They were engaged eighteen days after their first date; briefly a liberal Republican in Monmouth County, Murphy switched parties over 20 years ago.

She became involved in philanthropic activities and spent several years in Germany while Phil Murphy was the U.S. Ambassador.  She also worked with former Vice President Al Gore on the Climate Reality Project.  While Phil Murphy served as Democratic National Finance Chairman in 2006, Tammy Murphy was his fundraising partner.

Murphy would become the first former First Lady to seek public office in Helen S. Meyner ousted a Republican incumbent in 1974 and served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives.

State first ladies have had difficulty transitioning into public office.

In 1972, Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards appointed his wife, Elaine, to serve nearly four months as an interim U.S. Senator.

Kentucky First Lady Martha Wilkinson sought to succeed her term-limited husband in 1991 but withdrew after polls showed her trailing in the Democratic primary.

Dawn Gibbons, a former state legislator, unsuccessfully sought the GOP nomination for Congress when he husband gave up his seat to run for governor of Nevada in 2006; she served as First Lady for more than three years.

Speculation that Governor Murphy himself might run for Senate will likely end now that his wife is interested.