Sky Blue FC’s majority stakeholder Phil Murphy has been elected governor of New Jersey. NBC News called the race for the Democratic candidate just after 8:00 p.m. EST on Tuesday. Murphy defeated Republican Kim Guadagno who is serving out her term as Lieutenant Governor Chris Christie whose term is set to expire at the end of the year.

Murphy became involved with Sky Blue when Thomas Hofstetter decided to bring the team up to full professional status in order to join WPS in 2009. At the time Murphy was U.S. Ambassador to Germany in the Obama administration. Despite the great distance he found time to attend a few games each season during WPS. Sky Blue won the WPS title in 2009.

Prior to becoming Ambassador to Germany, Murphy worked under Howard Dean as finance chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Before that he spent 23 years at Goldman Sachs. When he moves into the Governor’s mansion in January, Murphy will become the 56th official governor of New Jersey.