Phil Murphy Bio
Philip Dunton Murphy, known publicly as Phil Murphy, is an American politician, financier, and former diplomat who served as the 56th governor of New Jersey from 2018 to 2026. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected governor in 2017 and narrowly reelected in 2021, becoming the first New Jersey Democratic governor to win a second term since Brendan Byrne in 1977.
Before entering politics, Murphy built a long career in finance and diplomacy. He spent 23 years at Goldman Sachs in senior roles across Frankfurt, Hong Kong, and New York, and later served as United States ambassador to Germany under President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013. Raised in Massachusetts, he holds a Bachelor of Arts in economics from Harvard University and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Early Life and Background
Phil Murphy was born on August 16, 1957, in Boston, Massachusetts, and raised in the nearby towns of Needham and Newton. He is the son of Dorothy Louise Dunton and Walter F. Murphy. The family was Irish American, with Phil being third generation. By his own recollection, his household was “middle class on a good day”; his mother worked as a secretary and his father, a high-school dropout, took any work he could, including managing a liquor store and serving as a for-pay pallbearer.
Both of his parents were enthusiastic supporters of President John F. Kennedy and volunteered for Kennedy’s 1952 United States Senate campaign. Murphy played soccer as a boy, a sport he continued to follow closely throughout his life. His mother placed strong value on education, and Phil and his three older siblings all earned college degrees.
Murphy graduated from Needham High School in 1975 alongside future Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker. He went on to Harvard University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in economics in 1979. At Harvard, he briefly aspired to a career in musical theater and was elected president of the Hasty Pudding Theatricals. He later earned an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in 1983.
Path to US Politics
Murphy began his professional life with a summer internship at Goldman Sachs in 1982 and was hired full time after graduating from Wharton in 1983. Over the next 23 years he rose through senior roles, including heading the firm’s Frankfurt office from 1993 to 1997 and serving as President of Goldman Sachs Asia from 1997 to 1999, based in Hong Kong. He eventually secured a seat on the firm’s management committee before retiring in 2006.
After leaving Goldman Sachs, Murphy served as National Finance Chair of the Democratic National Committee from 2006 to 2009, where he worked closely with DNC Chair Howard Dean. He helped finance Dean’s “50-state strategy” and says he raised around 300 million dollars for the party during his tenure. From 2009 to 2013, he served as United States Ambassador to Germany under President Obama, a period that included the WikiLeaks disclosure of frank diplomatic cables and the European debt crisis.
Phil Murphy Career
Early Career (1982–2009)
Murphy’s early career was defined by his long climb at Goldman Sachs. He progressed from summer associate to senior partner, leading the firm’s Frankfurt office and later its Asia operations. In 1999 he joined the management committee, where his colleagues included Hank Paulson and Gary Cohn, both of whom later served at the highest levels of the federal government. He retired from the firm in 2006 with a net worth above 50 million dollars.
In 2005, while still formally connected to finance, New Jersey Governor Richard Codey named Murphy to chair the New Jersey Benefits Task Force, a body created to address the state’s pension crisis. The task force’s December 2005 report criticized past budget “gimmicks” and proposed raising the retirement age and recalculating how pensions related to final salary, recommendations that drew strong opposition from labor unions. From 2006 to 2009, Murphy led fundraising for the Democratic National Committee, an experience that sharpened his political profile.
U.S. Ambassador to Germany Breakthrough (2009–2013)
Murphy was nominated by President Obama in July 2009 and confirmed by the United States Senate on August 7, 2009. He presented his credentials in Berlin to German President Horst Koehler on September 3, 2009, the date the State Department considers the effective start of his service. He was sworn in on September 13, 2009.
His tenure was marked by the United States diplomatic cables leak, which contained negative statements his embassy had signed about senior German politicians, including a description of Chancellor Angela Merkel as “insecure.” Murphy appeared on German television to manage the fallout, saying “I’m a big boy. At the end of the day, the buck stops with me.” On the European debt crisis, he argued that Europe needed both fiscal consolidation and growth. He stepped down in May 2013 and his mission formally ended on August 26, 2013.
Governor of New Jersey Era (2018–2026)
Murphy was sworn in as the 56th governor of New Jersey on January 16, 2018, at the Trenton War Memorial, succeeding Chris Christie. In his early months he signed an executive order reviving wind-power subsidies, committed New Jersey to the Paris Agreement, and signed legislation implementing automatic voter registration and permitting sports betting. He also signed laws expanding the time sexual-assault victims could file suit, restricting solitary confinement, and in 2019 allowing terminally ill patients to seek medical aid in dying.
His first term was dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic after the first New Jersey case was reported on March 5, 2020. Murphy declared a state of emergency on March 9 and signed multiple executive orders that month locking down the state. By April most schools and businesses were closed. In February 2021 he signed bills that legalized cannabis, expunged 250,000 low-level cannabis arrests, and limited the use of cannabis or alcohol odor as a basis for police searches. In July 2022, he was elected chair of the National Governors Association, becoming the first person from New Jersey to hold that office.
Notable Events and Milestones
Murphy’s signature political moments include his 56 percent general-election victory in 2017 over Republican Kim Guadagno, his narrow 51.2 percent reelection defeat of Jack Ciattarelli in 2021, and his leadership through the COVID-19 pandemic, which briefly pushed his approval rating to 67 percent. In December 2024 he signed a bill prohibiting book bans in New Jersey, and in his final year as governor he granted 455 pardons and commutations.
Phil Murphy Career Wins
Phil Murphy’s career in electoral politics rests on two major victories, both for the governorship of New Jersey. In 2017, he won the Democratic primary decisively with 48 percent of the vote and then captured the general election with roughly 56 percent of the vote, defeating Republican Kim Guadagno. In 2021, he ran unopposed in the Democratic primary and defeated Republican Jack Ciattarelli by a much closer margin of 51.2 percent, making him the first Democratic New Jersey governor to be reelected since Brendan Byrne in 1977.
New Jersey Gubernatorial Highlights
Murphy’s first gubernatorial win came after he lent about 15 million dollars of his own money to a campaign that ultimately raised 19 million dollars, more than twice what all other candidates combined spent. His victory margins varied; in 2017 he swept normally Democratic municipalities while pulling Somerset County into the Democratic column for the first time since 1989. His 2021 win was unexpectedly close, hampered by criticism of the long duration of some of his COVID-19 executive orders.
Other Wins and Achievements
Beyond electoral office, Murphy was confirmed as United States Ambassador to Germany in 2009 and chaired the National Governors Association beginning in July 2022. He also received honorary degrees from Hamilton College in 2015 and from Rutgers University in 2019, and in 2022 was awarded the Knight Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Phil Murphy Family
Family Background and Personal Heritage
Phil Murphy was born to Dorothy Louise Dunton and Walter F. Murphy, both Irish-American and lifelong supporters of the Kennedy family. He grew up with three older siblings in working-class homes in the Boston suburbs, in a household that he has described as “middle class on a good day.” Both parents stressed the value of education, a principle that shaped his path to Harvard and Wharton.
Personal Life
Murphy met his future wife, Tammy Snyder, in 1987 at Goldman Sachs, but did not ask her out for another six years. They became engaged 18 days after their first date and married within six months, in 1993. The couple has four children. The family lives in a riverside estate in Middletown Township, New Jersey, where they moved in the late 1990s, and also owns homes in Germany and Italy. Murphy is Catholic, and he and Tammy are part owners of Gotham FC, a professional women’s soccer team. In March 2020 he underwent surgery in New York City to remove cancerous tumors from his kidneys and made a full recovery.