Tammy Murphy is preparing to run for Bob Menendez’s N.J. Senate seat, report says

Tammy Murphy, the wife of New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, has plans to run for the seat of Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, who is facing various federal corruption charges.

The New York Times reported on Wednesday that Tammy Murphy is hiring a staff for a U.S. Senate campaign, though talks of the Garden State’s first lady running aren’t new.

Her name has been floated before, and Axios reported in September that she was “seriously considering a run,” citing a source close to her. New Jersey-based outlets reported on Tuesday that she was preparing to file a U.S. Senate campaign account with the Federal Election Commission this week.

Murphy, 58, had not yet filed as of Wednesday, and could not be reached for comment. She could become the latest candidate to enter next year’s Democratic primary race for the Senate seat, joining U.S. Rep. Andy Kim (D., Burlington), who announced after Menendez was indicted in September that he plans to run, and at least one other candidate. Menendez, who has maintained his innocence, hasn’t said whether he will seek another term.

Though Murphy has never run for office herself, she has been entrenched in Democratic politics and has her own staff with her own office in Trenton. She’s even been nicknamed “co-governor” by political insiders —a title she resists.

She has been an advocate for climate change and maternal and infant health, launched a financing network for women-owned start-ups, and raised millions for pandemic relief.

Menendez, 69, was indicted in September for allegedly accepting bribes of gold bars, a 2019 Mercedes-Benz, and more in exchange for helping three New Jersey businessmen with their personal and legal problems. Prosecutors allege that he helped one of them maintain a monopoly on certifying U.S. exports of halal meat to Egypt, in turn hurting American meat producers.

Menendez was indicted again in October, on charges that he acted as an unregistered agent for Egypt. A superseding indictment handed down by a Manhattan grand jury alleged that he provided sensitive federal government information that made its way to the Egyptian military and intelligence officials in exchange for bribes.

Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman was the first U.S. senator to call for his colleague to resign, and 30 other Senate Democrats have followed suit. Menendez has stepped down as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, but has refused to resign from the Senate.

The three-term senator was previously indicted in 2015 in a different federal bribery case that alleged he accepted lavish gifts from a Florida eye doctor. He was acquitted of some charges after a jury deadlocked in 2017.

While New Jersey Democrats rallied behind Menendez during his first criminal case, they were quick to turn on him this time.

Should Menendez resign, the governor would appoint a successor.

In addition to Murphy and Kim, political newcomer Kyle Jasey, a real estate lender and son of a North Jersey state assemblywoman, is also campaigning for the seat.

“I believe that our current representative’s multiple scandals make him unfit to serve, and I will do everything in my power to give the people of NJ an alternative who they can believe in,” his campaign website says.

Reps. Mikie Sherrill (D., Essex), Donald Norcross (D., Camden), and Josh Gottheimer (D., Bergen) may also consider running.

The field won’t be set in stone until April, the deadline to launch a run, and the Democratic primary will be held in June.

Former Republican state Sen. Joe Kyrillos — who has known the Murphys for more than two decades — told The Inquirer in 2021 that anyone familiar with the first lady expected that she would play a big role in her husband’s administration.

Murphy grew up in a Republican family in Virginia Beach, and, according to the New York Times, she continued voting in the party’s primaries through 2014. Her passion for environmental causes and abortion rights pulled her away from the GOP.

The Murphys moved from Germany to New Jersey in 1998, and Phil Murphy entered politics as the chair for the Democratic National Committee and U.S. ambassador to Germany under President Barack Obama after two decades on Wall Street. By then, Tammy Murphy was on the board for Vice President Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project and was a regular presence in her husband’s gubernatorial campaign in 2017.