Murphy is one of the Republican Party's most successful political media consultants, leading campaign teams to victory in more than forty races, including multiple Senate and Gubernatorial victories in California, Michigan, Florida, Iowa, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Idaho, Washington state and New Jersey. He's directed multiple successful independent expenditure campaigns, including recent work for Sen Pat Toomey's victory In 2016. He's worked on Presidential campaigns including Bush '88, Bush '92 and McCain 2000. His unsuccessful campaigns include statewide efforts for Oliver North, Rick Lazio and Meg Whitman.
Political commentary
Murphy serves as a commentator on NBC's Meet the Press and political programs. Murphy wrote a column for TIME Magazine during the 2008 election cycle. In August 2012, National Journal named Murphy one of "Ten Republicans to follow on Twitter". In 2003, Murphy visited a Georgian museum dedicated to Josef Stalin and recounted his experience. On September 3, 2008, after a segment on NBC, Murphy was recorded, along with conservative commentator Peggy Noonan and then NBC reporter Chuck Todd, giving critical analysis about Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin. All three were apparently unaware that their microphones were still live. In the captured audio, Murphy describes the pick of Palin as "cynical". Murphy had been publicly critical of the strategy of the Palin choice, saying her appeal was mostly limited to the Republican base. In 2013, Murphy was a signatory to an amicus curiae brief submitted to the Supreme Court in support of same-sex marriage during the Hollingsworth v. Perry case. During the 2016 election, Murphy created and hosted the Radio Free GOP podcast, consistently rated as one of the most popular political podcasts on iTunes. In June, 2019, Murphy launched the "Hacks on Tap" podcast with David Axelrod, focusing on developments in the 2020 Election.
Revolution Agency
In 1986, Murphy teamed with close friend Alex Castellanos to form Murphy & Castellanos. In 1989 he established MPGH, which he sold eleven years later to Interpublic. Murphy is currently senior partner at Revolution Agency, a political advertising, advocacy, public affairs and political consulting firm in Washington, D.C. At Revolution, Murphy advises a variety of Fortune 500 companies, hedge funds, interest groups, political action committees and trade associations.
In the 2016 election cycle Murphy served as chief strategist for Right to Rise, a PAC supporting Jeb Bush's U.S. presidential campaign. The PAC raised over 100 million dollars, a record in primary PAC fundraising. Murphy set the PAC's strategy based on the assumption that Trump's campaign would inevitably fail, and so the PAC would instead concentrate on defeating other GOP candidates, "candidates in our lane that we can overcome." Right to Rise spent over $118 million over the course of the 2016 Republican Presidential primary. Despite this sum Jeb Bush only won a total of 4 Republican delegates and received a total 94,699 votes. A staggering $1,246.05 per vote. On February 20, 2016, after a series of disappointing results in the Republican primaries, Bush announced that he was suspending his campaign. At that point Right to Rise refunded more than 12 million dollars to its donors, the only candidate PAC in the 2016 to manage its funds in a way to make possible a major refund of unspent contributions. Murphy refused to endorse or vote for Donald Trump after the latter's nomination as the Republican Party's candidate for the U.S. presidency, citing Trump's racism as a prohibiting factor.
Personal life
Murphy is a Republican and lives with his wife Tiffany Daniel, a Democrat whom he married in 2011, in Hancock Park, California and who also works as a writer and producer in the entertainment industry. He has a daughter as well as a brother who lives in Georgia.
