Gov. Phil Murphy is a C student – at least that’s how he was graded in an exit poll by the
Rutgers-Eagleton Poll, which was released this morning.
A poll of 1,570 New Jersey adults, contacted from Dec. 29, 2025, to Jan. 6, 2026, asked residents to give Murphy a final grade for the job he has done as governor, using a standard educational grading scale ranging from A (4 points) to F (0 points).
Murphy earns a C overall for the past eight years, with a grade-point average of 2.09. Here’s how the polling broke down:
- A: 9%
- B: 32%
- C: 23%
- D: 16%
- F: 13%
The same scale was used to grade various policy areas. Murphy mainly gets Cs across the board, but his lowest grades are on the two most important issues that have been at the top of New Jerseyans’ minds – affordability (1.32) and taxes (1.44). He receives a D+ on each of these issues.
Here’s how he fared on other key issues:
- Education and schools: 2.11 GPA
- Crime and safety: 2.11 GPA
- Health care: 2.09 GPA
- Economy and jobs: 1.98 GPA
- Transportation and infrastructure: 1.94 GPA.
- State budget and government: 1.79 GPA
Ashley Koning, the director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest and Polling at Rutgers-New Brunswick, said the ‘C’ grade fits as Murphy often was viewed as a middle-of-the-road leader.
“Gov. Murphy will leave office much as he entered it – a governor who rarely elicited strong reactions and generally avoided sharp swings in public opinion,” she said.
“Murphy exits with the steadiest ratings of any governor in our five decades of polling. He received neither the highest nor lowest ratings of any governor on record, in sharp contrast to his immediate predecessor.”
Koning noted Murphy’s grades on key fiscal issues have remained largely unchanged from his first to second term, suggesting New Jerseyans saw little progress in these critical areas.
“Addressing these same challenges will be among Governor-elect Sherrill’s most important tasks as she takes office next week,” she said.
As for the direction New Jersey is headed toward as Murphy’s governorship comes to an end, residents are split: Forty-two percent say the state is going in the right direction, 43% say it has gone off on the wrong track and 16% are unsure.
