Not exactly true. As all dems do, he lied about what he really was. He ran as a left of center guy, he's been trying to govern as an outright communist and even the dem controlled legislature is blocking a lot of what he wants to do because they want to keep their cushy jobs.
Well Murphy did promise to raise taxes and he did just that
He also promised the pot heads legal pot, but that never got anywhere.
He won the pot head vote, which by the way is huge in NJ
A lot of single issue voters, pot heads are in that group
Plus his competition ran a really awful and boring campaign.
Put this in perspective, the last time a democrat governor was re-elected in New Jersey was back in the 70’s
Dems held the state house for 8 years with 3 governors, McGreevy, Cody, Corzine. none were ever re-elected, and Cody was never elected to be governor. Fun Fact, Cody was governor twice, once in 2002 for 3 days and in 2004 to 2006 to fill out McGreevy’s term.
Republican Governors have been re-elected, Christie, Whitman, Kean all were re-elected.
Brendon Byrne was the last democrat governor to be re-elected, 1977
The last time a Republican governor was NOT Re-elected in NJ was in 1973 when Cahill was primaried and the governorship was lost to Byrne.