New Jersey’s First Lady Tammy Murphy announces Senate bid

New Jersey First Lady Tammy Murphy on Wednesday announced her candidacy for the Senate seat currently occupied by Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J.

“I’m Tammy Murphy and I’m running for U.S. Senate to fight for New Jersey, our families and our democracy,” Murphy posted on X. Her husband is New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D). If elected, she would become the first woman elected to the Senate from the Garden State.

“We need a senator who will work every single day to lower the cost of living, protect abortion rights, end the gun violence epidemic, and defend our democracy,” Murphy said in an announcement video posted online. 

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Murphy, 58, is a constant at events alongside her husband, Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, and has taken on maternal and infant health and the environment as her top issues during her time as first lady — issues she highlighted in her announcement.

A Virginia native, and University of Virginia graduate, Tammy Murphy worked in finance at Goldman Sachs alongside Phil Murphy before the couple settled in New Jersey. They have four children.

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New Jersey Democrats are in a strong position ahead of 2024 election, having increased their majority in the state Assembly by five seats in the 2023 midterms. Murphy campaigned for state Democrats alongside her husband, the governor, and those electoral victories could translate into a deep bench of county-level support headed into next year’s election. 

Aside from being first lady, Murphy’s political résumé includes helping to found a think tank before her husband’s first run for office in 2017 that he used to showcase his policy ideas. She serves as the honorary chair of the New Jersey Council on the Green Economy and launched Nurture NJ, a statewide awareness campaign aimed at reducing maternal and infant mortality in the state. 

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Murphy, a former Republican who grew up in Virginia, enters the Democratic Senate primary as Menendez faces criminal charges of acting as a foreign agent and accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to benefit the Egyptian government through his “power and influence as a Senator,” according to the superseding indictment filed by a grand jury in Manhattan last month.

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Also running is Rep. Andy Kim, D-N.J., who declared his candidacy in September and became the first Democrat to challenge Menendez.

Fox News Digital’s Jamie Joseph and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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