Serving as the Governor of New Jersey has been the highest honor of my life.

Eight years ago this month, I began my partnership with the nine and a half million people who call this state home. In just seven short days, that journey will come to a close.

Yesterday, I delivered my final State of the State address — and I’m proud to report that together, we have built a New Jersey that is stronger AND fairer than ever before.

We passed a law that nearly doubled the minimum wage and we built the fastest-growing economy in the Northeast. All at the same time.

We reduced New Jersey’s prison population to its lowest level in decades and we brought homicides and shootings down to record lows. All at the same time.

We delivered more property tax relief than any other administration in New Jersey history, secured nine consecutive credit rating upgrades in just three years after a generation of downgrades, restored funding for long-neglected priorities such as pensions and public education, and eliminated over a billion dollars in medical debt for nearly 800,000 New Jerseyans.

And that’s just on the economy.

When the Supreme Court launched an attack on reproductive rights, New Jersey fought back. We took action and codified the right to an abortion, making New Jersey a safe haven for reproductive freedom.

When bad actors launched attacks on our democratic process, New Jersey fought back. From expanding early in-person voting to restoring voting rights to more than 80,000 people on probation and parole and establishing automatic voter registration, our democracy is stronger and more secure than ever before.

We’ve banned cell phones in our schools to ensure our students are more focused and less anxious, set our state on course to a cleaner, more sustainable future, and brought some of the biggest names in entertainment such as Netflix, Lionsgate, and Paramount to put New Jersey on the path to quickly become the global destination for film and television production.

There’s a lot more that we’ve done to secure the future of this state, but the bottom line is this:

When I entered office in 2018, I promised to turn things around as Governor. It gives me great joy to say that we have lived up to that promise.

I couldn’t be more grateful to New Jersey for entrusting me with the sacred responsibility of serving as Governor. Thank you for the opportunity, thank you for your support, and thank you for joining me on this journey to leave our state better than we found it for our children.

Until next time,

Phil