Tammy Murphy

Tammy Murphy (née Snyder; born August 5, 1965) is an American political activist, candidate for U.S. Senate, and former real estate analyst who has been the first lady of New Jersey since 2018, an unofficial role in the state.

A member of the Democratic Party, she is a first-time political candidate in the 2024 United States Senate election in New Jersey.

She also co-owns the professional women's soccer team NJ/NY Gotham FC with her husband, New Jersey governor Phil Murphy, and chairs the organization.

Tammy Murphy was born Tammy Snyder in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Her father, Edward, and mother, Jean, a British expatriate and former fashion model, owned what New York magazine described as an "empire" of car dealerships.

Edward was Jewish.

Murphy attended boarding school Phillips Academy Andover, graduating in 1983, then the University of Virginia, graduating in 1987 with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications and English.

After graduating college, Murphy went to work in finance as an analyst for Goldman Sachs in the real estate department from 1987 to 1989.

She left Goldman at the age of 24 to work mainly at Investcorp in London for three years, from 1990 to 1993, but quit at the age of 27 "to marry Mr. Murphy in 1994 and move to Frankfurt, Germany, where he was working at the time."

She has not "worked outside the home" since marrying.

As of 2023,

Murphy "describes herself as a homemaker on tax forms."

Murphy and her husband are the founders and part owners of NJ/NY Gotham FC, a professional women's soccer team.

Murphy has given to more than 300 candidates and committees since 2000, including Bush, Lazio, and the New Jersey Republican Party.

She has also made donations to Democratic candidates, including Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, and Bob Torricelli.

Politico and The New York Times have described Tammy Murphy as a “prolific fundraiser” for party leaders in the Democratic Party.

Sources differ as to when Murphy became a Democrat.

At a televised debate on February 18, 2024, Murphy stated she has been a Democrat "for ten years."

She donated to George W. Bush's presidential campaigns in 2004 and 2000, as well as to Rick Lazio's Senate campaign against Hillary Clinton in 2000.

Her husband, Phil Murphy, became the Democratic National Committee's finance chair in 2006 and U.S. Ambassador to Germany in 2009.

Following a large donation by the Murphys, Al Gore recruited her to be a founding member of the environmental group The Climate Reality Project.

They founded the team in 2007.

Murphy serves as the club's chair.

While her husband was working as the United States ambassador to Germany from 2009 through 2013, Murphy, according to her biography, chaired meetings, gave speeches, and hosted meals and receptions to help further develop the German-American relationship.

In 2014 she and her husband founded New Start New Jersey, a think tank to help "grow the middle class and jumpstart the economy in the state" that she chaired, which ceased operations in 2017.

Murphy grew up in a Republican family and continued to vote as a registered Republican in primary elections until 2014.

Previously, Murphy, notwithstanding her primary voting record up to 2014 as a Republican, stated that she changed political parties in the mid-2000s based on her stances on issues such as abortion, gun control, and the environment.

At a candidate forum at the County College of Morris in January 2024, she addressed the fact that she was previously a registered Republican due to her upbringing in a “moderately conservative” small-business family in Virginia and was always seeking GOP candidates who shared her values in education, the environment, and reproductive freedoms.

"But over the years, I ran out of room,” she said. “I realized I was a Democrat."

Murphy was appointed to the University of Virginia Board of Visitors in 2015.

Murphy was active in her husband's 2017 campaign for Governor of New Jersey.

Phil called her his de facto finance chair." Murphy chaired their "issue advocacy" committee, New Start New Jersey and Phil spent $20 million on his campaign. She also participated in campaign events with and without her husband. Phil Murphy was elected governor on November 7, 2017, and sworn into office on January 16, 2018.

A November 2023 Politico report discussed how multiple women accused Phil Murphy's 2017 campaign, which Tammy Murphy helped run, of being a "toxic" environment for women, including campaign strategist Julie Roginsky and campaign volunteer Katie Brennan.

A young woman, Julia Fahl, the future mayor of Lambertville, New Jersey, was in the room when an angry male staffer threw a chair.

In 2018, media outlets reported that the team was, "plagued by poor housing, subpar facilities, and mismanagement."

In 2024, Politico that Murphy had been criticized for how, "the women’s soccer team she and her husband co-own, Gotham FC, was found [...] to have provided poor living and playing conditions, prompting Murphy to become more hands-on with the club."

Responding to the women's soccer team allegations, Murphy said that she and her husband were unaware of the players' conditions and allegations of abuse.

After she became aware of the report detailing these allegations, Murphy "took a more active role in the team, renaming it Gotham FC and moving the players to Red Bull Arena in Harrison commencing a turnaround that culminated in last season’s National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) championship."

She has sat on the boards of her children's schools, the private Rumson Country Day School and the boarding school Phillips Andover, as well as on that of the Count Basie Center for the Arts, among others.

Murphy served as one of New Jersey's 14 presidential electors for Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.