NJ First Lady Tammy Murphy suspends Senate bid to replace Bob Menendez

New Jersey First Lady Tammy Murphy is dropping out of the race for U.S. Senate to replace Sen. Bob Menendez, she said on Sunday.

Her decision comes just four months after Murphy announced her campaign – and amid a bruising fight over the unusual primary ballot design that many of the state’s most powerful Democrats expected to use on her behalf, hoping to hand her an easy victory. Her departure from the race now leaves her chief competitor, Rep. Andy Kim, the sole frontrunner.

“I have been genuine and factual throughout but it is clear to me that continuing in this race will involve waging a very divisive and negative campaign, which I am not willing to do,” Murphy said in a video statement released on social media.

Murphy suspended her campaign just one day ahead of the filing deadline to appear on primary ballots. Kim remains in the primary race with longtime activists Lawrence Hamman and Patricia Campos-Medina, though both lag far behind Kim polling and party support.

The Republican primary will see a contest between hotel entrepreneur Curtis Bashaw, Mendham Borough Mayor Christine Serrano Glassner and former News 12 New Jersey reporter Alex Zdan. But New Jersey hasn’t sent a Republican to the Senate in more than half a century.

Murphy began her campaign with a huge institutional advantage, both because of the considerable political sway her husband holds as governor of New Jersey, and because of an esoteric system known as the county line. But the county line and exceptional power of New Jersey’s political machines became central issues in the race, with Kim filing a federal lawsuit to stop its use before ballots went to voters.

Kim's legal team said on Sunday that it planned to continue pressing forward in that suit.

A ruling in that case could come any day.

In 19 of New Jersey’s 21 counties, candidates endorsed by the local political party are grouped together on a single column or row, which researchers say gives them an advantage at the ballot box that’s extremely difficult to overcome because it associates lesser-known candidates with well-known incumbents and high-profile leaders — for instance, President Joe Biden — at the head of the line. No other state uses such a system.

Kim won most of the conventions where the candidates competed for those endorsements and members voted by secret ballots — but in some of New Jersey’s largest and most Democrat-rich counties, the endorsements are simply awarded by party bosses who favored Murphy.

Because of that and her own convention wins, Murphy was slated to get preferential treatment on the ballots used by at least two-thirds of voters in the state.

Yet the primary race has seen a revolt among many rank-and-file Democratic delegates against the line, and what some progressives argued was a deck stacked in Murphy’s favor. In a stunning rebuke of Gov. Phil Murphy, the state attorney last week said he thinks the county line practice is unconstitutional, and wouldn’t defend it on behalf of the state.

“This was not going to be easy for her and in fact, it would have to be a very hard-fought fight to win this nomination, even though she had accumulated the party support in a majority of the state,” Monmouth University pollster Patrick Murray said. “There was a lot of information from polling and other sources coming out that Andy Kim was going to be strong, even in places where he didn't have the line.”

Murray said Kim, a three-term congressman, benefited from experience in campaigning that she lacked as a first-time candidate.

“It was becoming clear that as we moved into the part of the primary process where you actually do have to appeal to average voters, that Andy Kim was going to have an advantage over her there,” Murray said.

Tammy Murphy and the political machinery supporting her have seen other key losses this week. Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, who’d once endorsed the first lady, switched his endorsement and urged her to drop out. Fulop had been considered a contender for governor in 2016, until he dropped out of the race as Phil Murphy secured county party endorsements and the favored ballot placement throughout the state.

“I told [Andy Kim] it’s not always comfortable to admit a mistake but clearly I made one here and this convention season has demonstrated he is the better candidate to represent NJ,” Fulop posted on social media. “The backbone of our party volunteers and activists have spoken loudly and we should listen to them.”

Despite receiving several personal endorsements from some of the state’s most powerful Democrats almost after originally announcing her bid, as well as several unions and other influential organizations since, she seemingly failed to keep that momentum going with Democratic voters. She performed poorly in the only statewide poll – scoring behind Kim – and in several convention contests.

Last month, Kim stunned his competitor when he managed to score 20 points higher than Tammy Murphy in a convention vote in Monmouth, her own home county.

Menendez, who's been indicted on corruption and bribery charges, said last week he would not be running on the Democratic line in the race, saying he hopes to position himself as an independent instead.

The primary is set for June 4.

Murray, the pollster, said there’s an irony in Tammy Murphy’s decision to drop out. Usually, securing the county line helps a candidate nearly guarantee a primary victory. But this “is a different environment than I've seen in the past,” he said.

“Whereas this anomaly that has been the party boss system in New Jersey has lasted beyond, any other state that's had a similar system, it’s now come up against all host of concerns about the fate of democracy, and making sure that people do have impact, uh, and that the voters themselves play a role in what's happening,” he said.

In her announcement video, Tammy Murphy did not directly reference Kim – but said she planned to redirect her energy toward ensuring that Biden wins his current bid for reelection. She said the Democratic party needed to remain united ahead of November’s general election – and she did not want to encourage any division in a presidential election where Biden is expected to run against former President Donald Trump again.

“With Donald Trump on the ballot, and so much at stake for our nation, I will not, in good conscience, waste resources tearing down a fellow Democrat,” Tammy Murphy said in the video.

A Tammy Murphy representative did not comment further and referred only to the video posted on social media. Representatives Kim did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Gothamist.

This story has been updated to correct a reference to Patrick Murray's name.