Chris Murphy


Christopher Scott Murphy is an American lawyer, author, and politician serving since 2013 as the junior United States senator from Connecticut. A member of the Democratic Party, he served from 2007 to 2013 in the United States House of Representatives, representing.
Before being elected to Congress, Murphy was a member of both chambers of the Connecticut General Assembly, serving two terms each in the Connecticut House of Representatives and the Connecticut Senate.
He ran for the U.S. Senate in 2012 after longtime incumbent Joe Lieberman announced his retirement. Murphy defeated former Connecticut secretary of state Susan Bysiewicz in the Democratic primary and Republican nominee Linda McMahon in the general election. Aged 39 at the time, Murphy was the youngest senator of the 113th Congress. He was reelected in 2018 and 2024.

Early life, education, and early career

Murphy was born on August 3, 1973, in White Plains, New York, to Catherine A. and Scott L. Murphy. He is of Irish and Polish descent. Murphy's father is a corporate lawyer who served as the managing partner of Shipman & Goodwin, a Hartford law firm, and his mother is a retired ESL teacher at Hanmer Elementary School in Wethersfield, Connecticut. Murphy has two younger siblings.
Murphy is a graduate of Wethersfield High School. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from his father's alma mater, Williams College, and his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Connecticut School of Law. Murphy spent his junior year studying abroad at Exeter College, Oxford through the Williams-Exeter Programme at Oxford. On May 19, 2013, Murphy received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the University of New Haven. He was a student body president and founded his high school's Young Democrats.
In 1996, Murphy managed Charlotte Koskoff's unsuccessful campaign for the House of Representatives against Nancy Johnson; a decade later, Murphy himself unseated Johnson. From 1997 to 1998, Murphy worked for Connecticut State Senate Majority Leader George Jepsen. Murphy was first elected to office in 1997, when he won a seat on Southington's planning and zoning commission.

Connecticut House of Representatives (1999–2003)

Elections

In 1998, at age 25, Murphy challenged 14-year incumbent Republican State Representative Angelo Fusco. Murphy was endorsed by the six largest labor unions in the state. The CT Employees Independent Union endorsed Murphy, the first time the union had endorsed Fusco's opponent. Fusco described himself as a union member, an environmentalist, and a moderate. Murphy defeated Fusco, 55%–45%. In 2000, he was reelected, defeating Barbara Morelli, 68%–32%.

Tenure

As early as March 1999, Murphy criticized U.S. Congresswoman Nancy Johnson's vote to impeach President Bill Clinton. In 2001, he co-sponsored a bill to eliminate child poverty. He proposed legislation to give free tuition to students of the state's community-technical colleges. He proposed legislation to ban smoking at state colleges and universities. He co-sponsored a bill to create an earned income tax credit. He was a supporter of LGBT rights as early as 2002. During his tenure, he served on the Judiciary Committee.

Connecticut State Senate (2003–2007)

Elections

After two terms in the Connecticut House, Murphy ran for a seat in the Connecticut State Senate in 2002. The open 16th district had been held by a Republican for more than a decade. In the general election, he defeated Republican State Representative Ann Dandrow, 53%–47%. He was reelected in 2004, defeating Republican Christopher O'Brien, 60%–37%.

Tenure

In 2003, Murphy joined the Clean Car Alliance and supported California-like environmental standards on auto manufacturers.
In 2004, Murphy supported a bill to ban smoking in restaurants and bars.
In 2005, Murphy authored legislation establishing the new Office of Child Protection, to "better coordinate advocacy for abused and neglected children". Murphy also wrote Public Act 05–149, an act permitting stem-cell research while prohibiting human cloning. The act, signed into law by Governor Jodi Rell, made Connecticut the third state in the nation to permit taxpayer-subsidized stem-cell research.
During his tenure in the State Senate, Murphy was one of the first ten co-sponsors of a civil union bill that passed the General Assembly in 2005. On his Senate campaign website, Murphy summarized his stance: "Let me be clear and simple: LGBT rights are human rights. Marriage equality and nondiscrimination in the military, workplace, classroom and healthcare system, based on real or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity, are civil rights that must be protected under law." During his tenure he chaired the Public Health Committee.

U.S. House of Representatives (2007–2013)

Elections

Murphy chose not to run for reelection to the State Senate, instead running for the U.S. House seat held by 12-term incumbent Republican Nancy Johnson. To challenge Johnson, he moved from Southington to Cheshire. Murphy was elected in 2006 with 56% of the vote, defeating Johnson by about 22,000 votes.
He carried 35 of the district's 41 cities and towns, including several that had reliably supported Johnson for decades. He defeated Johnson by a significant margin in her hometown of New Britain, which she had represented for over 30 years in both the state senate and in Congress. He was reelected in 2008 and 2010 with 60% and 54% of the vote, respectively.

Tenure

Murphy has received high ratings from progressive groups such as Americans for Democratic Action, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and various labor unions; and low scores from conservative groups as the Club for Growth, American Conservative Union, and FreedomWorks.
In 2008, Murphy sent House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer a letter expressing support for increased oil drilling as part of a bipartisan energy bill.
Murphy supports reform of federal supportive housing programs, which assist low-income people with severe disabilities. In 2008, the House of Representatives passed the "Frank Melville Supportive Housing Investment Act", which Murphy authored to modernize and streamline Section 811, which governs federal supportive housing grants.
Murphy has called for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, but in 2011, he voted to extend provisions of the Patriot Act.

Health care reform

In 2009, Murphy helped draft HR 3200, the House health-care reform bill. Murphy defended his role in supporting the bill at a contentious town hall meeting in Simsbury in August 2009.
A longtime supporter of health insurance reform, Murphy is a strong proponent of the public option, which entails the creation of an independent, government-sponsored health insurance plan to compete with private companies. He has argued that such a plan would not require government financing and would help introduce competition into monopolized health insurance markets and help reduce costs.

Congressional and judicial ethics reform

In May 2007, Murphy organized a group of freshman House members to support the creation of an independent, nonpartisan ethics panel to review complaints filed against House members. He has been credited with helping to shape the independent Office of Congressional Ethics, which was passed into law by the House in March 2008.
Murphy sponsored a bill that would subject Supreme Court justices to the same ethical code that applies to other federal judges and suggested in 2011 the possibility of an investigation of whether Justice Clarence Thomas had committed ethical violations that would justify removing him from office. The matter in question was Thomas's connection to Harlan Crow and other supporters of the Republican Party. Murphy circulated a draft letter to other members of Congress asking the House Judiciary Committee leadership to hold a hearing on the Supreme Court Transparency and Disclosure Act, which would end the Supreme Court's immunity to judicial ethics laws.
As a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Murphy was highly critical of for-profit government contractors operating in Iraq, which functioned with little government oversight and scrutiny. He introduced the Government Funding Transparency Act of 2008, which required private companies that do the majority of their business with the federal government to publicly disclose their top executives' salaries.
Two home invasions occurred in Murphy's district in 2007 and 2008; the latter, in Cheshire, was especially brutal, with the rape and murder of a mother and her two daughters. In response, Murphy proposed making home invasion a federal crime.
Murphy has been a proponent of the proposed New Haven-Hartford-Springfield Commuter Rail Line, an effort to use existing Amtrak railroad tracks for daily commuter service on par with Southwestern Connecticut's Metro-North service into New York. In 2008, Murphy successfully added an amendment to rail legislation making it easier for Amtrak and the state of Connecticut to cooperate on the rail project. The line began operation in 2018.
Murphy proposed reforms of the nation's "missing persons" databases, introducing "Billy's Law" in 2009 to improve coordination of law-enforcement efforts to find missing persons. The legislation was named in honor of Billy Smolinski Jr., a onetime resident of Murphy's district who disappeared in 2004.

U.S. House committee assignments

  • Committee on Foreign Affairs
  • *Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia
  • Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
  • *Subcommittee on Health Care, District of Columbia, Census and the National Archives
  • *Subcommittee on Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and Procurement Reform

    Caucus memberships

  • New Democrat Coalition