Still, even his political foes have largely rallied around Mr. Murphy who, as a first-term governor seeking to steady a state that has become an epicenter of the outbreak, has emerged as a different type of Democratic voice.

His briefings — never commanding the limelight that his neighbor, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, has attracted — are emblematic of his governing style: deferential yet stoic, present but not overbearing, not likely to draw or seek the spotlight.

The governor’s briefings often stretch beyond 90 minutes or until reporters run out of questions.

Mr. Murphy, 62, doesn’t display Mr. Cuomo’s brashness — his harshest lashings have been to label those flouting stay-at-home orders as “knuckleheads.”

And unlike Democratic governors like Mr. Cuomo or Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Mr. Murphy has often refrained from criticizing President Trump, focusing instead on offering the public gratitude that Mr. Trump often seeks.

“I don’t wake up in the morning with the luxury of picking who my president is that day,” Mr. Murphy said in an interview. “We need all the help we can get from them, and so that doesn’t mean we’re going to pull our punches.”

Mr. Murphy has spoken directly to Mr. Trump about half a dozen times, and the president has publicly praised the governor. “Governor Murphy of New Jersey is a terrific guy and, frankly, he wants — you know, he’s got a pretty hot spot right there,” Mr. Trump said last month.

New Jersey has received 1,050 ventilators from the national stockpile Mr. Trump controls, three field medical stations with 1,000 beds, two Federal Emergency Management Agency field-testing sites and 1.5 million pieces of personal protective equipment, though Mr. Murphy said the state still needed federal help to expand its testing capacity.