Is Phil Murphy running for president in 2028?

Phil Murphy, the former governor of New Jersey who served two terms and left office in January 2026, has not taken a 2028 presidential run off the table but treats it as a remote possibility. Asked about his interest at the close of his gubernatorial term, Murphy said he had 'not taken anything off the table' but 'wouldn't put a lot of money on that,' a formulation that signals personal skepticism rather than active planning. He has not filed with the Federal Election Commission or taken any formal campaign steps.

Murphy's background is a mix of politics and finance. He served as the Democratic governor of New Jersey for two full terms, winning in 2017 and again in 2021 - one of the few Democrats to win a second term in that office in modern history. Before that, he was the U.S. Ambassador to Germany under President Obama and had a long career at Goldman Sachs. His term ended in January 2026, succeeded by Democratic governor Mikie Sherrill. Since leaving office he has remained active in party circles but has not launched any 2028 campaign infrastructure.

Murphy does not appear as a named choice in any of the eleven mid-2026 national Democratic primary surveys tracked on this site, consistent with his undeclared status and low national name recognition in the primary. The eleven surveys, conducted in May and June 2026, are: McLaughlin and Associates (June 17-23, 2026, 464 likely voters), Echelon Insights (June 11-14, 2026, 515 likely voters), Noble Predictive Insights (June 1-4, 2026, 1,013 registered voters), Focaldata (May 29-June 1, 2026, 685 registered voters), Harvard-Harris (May 29-31, 2026, 1,725 registered voters), I&I/TIPP (May 26-28, 2026, 593 registered voters), Big Data Poll (May 24-27, 2026, 1,378 likely voters), Emerson College (May 24-25, 2026, 432 likely voters), Rasmussen Reports (May 18-20, 2026, 433 likely voters), Overton Insights (May 16-20, 2026, 661 likely voters), and Echelon Insights (May 14-18, 2026, 501 likely voters). The nine candidates listed as named choices across those surveys are Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom, Pete Buttigieg, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Josh Shapiro, Mark Kelly, Cory Booker, JB Pritzker, and Andy Beshear. Murphy's absence is consistent with his own self-assessment and the fact that he has not taken the public steps -- early-state visits, fundraising announcements, national organizing -- that typically prompt pollsters to include a name as a standalone choice.

New Jersey creates a 12th Amendment same-state consideration for any Murphy presidential ticket involving another tracked 2028 Democrat from New Jersey. Phil Murphy and Cory Booker, the U.S. senator from New Jersey and a 2028 presidential possibility, are both New Jersey residents (homeState: New Jersey per lib/candidates.ts). New Jersey has 14 electoral votes and is classified as Safe D -- it voted Democratic in 2016, 2020, and 2024. Under the 12th Amendment, a state's electors cannot cast both a presidential vote and a vice-presidential vote for residents of their own state -- the constraint Dick Cheney resolved by re-registering from Texas to Wyoming before joining the George W. Bush ticket in 2000. A Murphy-Booker or Booker-Murphy ticket would put those 14 Safe D electoral votes at risk unless one candidate established legal domicile in another state before Election Day. Unlike New Jersey, most of the other major 2028 Democratic contenders are from different states: Harris (California), Newsom (California), Buttigieg (Michigan), Ocasio-Cortez (New York), Shapiro (Pennsylvania), Beshear (Kentucky), Klobuchar (Minnesota), Emanuel (Illinois), and Warnock (Georgia). A Murphy ticket with any of those candidates faces no 12th Amendment same-state conflict.

Murphy is constitutionally eligible to run for president. He is a natural-born U.S. citizen. He is 68 years old as of mid-2026, above the constitutional minimum of 35, and would be approximately 71 years old on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2029. He has been a U.S. resident well in excess of the required 14 years. No legal bar prevents a candidacy.

The 2028 Democratic field as of mid-2026 is led by Gavin Newsom, Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez based on polling and prediction markets. Murphy does not appear as a named choice in any of the eleven mid-2026 national Democratic primary surveys. His honest self-assessment ('I wouldn't put a lot of money on that') tracks with the data: he is a possible but long-shot entrant whose profile and fundraising network are more relevant to future influence than to a competitive primary run.