Murphy wins re-election: How many terms can a governor serve in NJ?
Governor Phil Murphy became the first Democrat to win a second term in New Jersey in nearly five decades, after the Associated Press called the race for Murphy.
The win marks Murphy's second and last consecutive term.
Murphy was projected to easily beat Republican challenger Jack Ciattarelli, but the race was too close to call on Election Day and the slow and problematic counting process continued Wednesday.
The lead flip-flopped between Murphy and Ciattarelli so many times that it became hard to keep track of who was ahead. But the AP called the race Wednesday evening. The tally from Democratic strongholds carried Murphy to the narrow win.
Murphy's victory marked at least one for Democrats, who were dealt several crushing blows nationally. In Virginia, Republican Glenn Youngkin defeated Democratic incumbent Terry McAuliffe in a state that President Joe Biden won just two years ago.
With the win, Murphy, a former Goldman Sachs banker and U.S. Ambassador to Germany, became the first Democrat to win four more years in office since Brendan Byrne accomplished the feat in 1977. For the longest time, New Jersey voters elected and reelected Republicans after Democratic incumbents were defeated.
How many terms can a governor serve in NJ?
A governor in New Jersey serves a four-year term and can serve any number of terms, but he or she can't serve more than two consecutive terms.
What about in other states?
Gubernatorial term limits are either lifetime or consecutive and can be based on years or terms served.
Consecutive term limits
Consecutive means that once a governor has served the maximum number of years or terms, he or she must leave the governor's office. In most cases, the person can run for another elected position, according to ballotpedia.org.
After a period of time out of the governor's office, usually four years, the person could run again.
In 28 states, including New Jersey, the limits are consecutive. This means Murphy could run for governor again at some point in the future.
The 28 states that have consecutive terms are:
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Colorado
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Nebraska
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- North Carolina
- Ohio
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- West Virginia
Lifetime term limits
In eight states, the term for governor is lifetime. This means that after a governor has served the maximum allowable number of terms, that person can not run again for governor.
The states with lifetime limits are:
- Arkansas (2 lifetime term limit)
- California (2 lifetime term limit)
- Delaware (2 lifetime term limit)
- Indiana (8 out of 12 year limit)
- Michigan (2 lifetime term limit)
- Mississippi (2 lifetime term limit)
- Missouri (2 lifetime term limit)
- Montana (8 out of 16 year limit)
- Nevada (2 lifetime term limit)
- Oklahoma (2 lifetime term limit)
- Oregon (8 out of 12 year limit)
- Wyoming (8 out of 16 year limit)
No term limits, but with two year terms
Two states have no term limits, but the governor can only serve two year terms. Those are:
- New Hampshire
- Vermont
No consecutive terms
Virginia is the one state in the country that does not allow its governor to serve consecutive terms.
No term limits
The following states have no term limits:
- Connecticut
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Iowa
- Massachusetts
- Minnesota
- New York
- North Dakota
- Texas
- Utah
- Washington
- Wisconsin