Chris Murphy (D-CT-Senate)

Chris Murphy Senate Candidate Connecticut

Chris Murphy Biography from House.gov

Biography of Congressman Chris Murphy

Congressman Christopher S. Murphy is currently serving his third term representing Connecticut’s Fifth District, which includes the towns of Danbury, Meriden, New Britain, and Waterbury. He serves on the Foreign Affairs Committee and its Middle East and South Asia Subcommittee.  He also serves on the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and its Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and Procurement Reform and Health Care, District of Columbia, Census and the National Archives Subcommittees.

The Foreign Affairs Committee is the lead body in the House of Representatives on foreign policy and diplomatic engagement around the world.  With oversight over the State Department, the United States Agency for International Development, and the country’s role at the United Nations, Murphy will be part of the debate on crucial national security and foreign policy affairs.

Murphy is also a member of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which is the main investigative committee in the U.S. House of Representatives, and has broad jurisdiction over federal government management.  The committee’s high-profile hearings have covered subjects from reconstruction in Iraq, to the state of our economy, to pharmaceutical marketing practices.  Through this committee, Murphy has pushed to make common sense reforms to strengthen our Buy America laws and protect Connecticut’s manufacturing firms.

Prior to his service in the U.S. House of Representatives, Congressman Murphy served for eight years in the Connecticut General Assembly. He spent four years representing Southington and the 81st district in the House, and then spent four years representing the 16th Senatorial District, which includes the towns of Waterbury, Wolcott, Cheshire and Southington. While in the Senate, he served as the Chairman of the Public Health Committee.

As Chairman of the Public Health Committee, Congressman Murphy was the General Assembly’s leader on health care issues. In 2003, during his first year as Chairman, he led the passage of Connecticut’s landmark workplace smoking ban. That year, he also authored legislation that prohibits hospitals from engaging in overly aggressive collection practices against uninsured patients and a law establishing new government powers to be utilized during a bioterrorism attack.

In 2005, Congressman Murphy authored and passed Connecticut’s historic Stem Cell Investment Act, a bill that he had introduced in the previous year. The legislation, which invested $100 million over ten years into embryonic and adult stem cell research, became the nation’s first law directing state funding to life-saving stem cell research.

Congressman Murphy is also a leader on children’s rights issues. In the State Senate, he authored legislation establishing the new Office of Child Protection, and as Chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Judicial and Corrections, he championed efforts to reform the state’s juvenile justice system.

Congressman Murphy grew up in Connecticut, and attended Williams College in Massachusetts, graduating with honors and a double major in history and political science. In 2002, he graduated from UConn Law School in Hartford, Connecticut. He practiced real estate and banking law from 2002-2006 with the firm of Ruben, Johnson & Morgan in Hartford.

On August 18, 2007, Congressman Murphy married Cathy Holahan, a legal aid attorney who represents children in need in New Britain and Waterbury. Chris, Cathy, and their son Owen reside in Cheshire.

Biography from Friends of Chris Murphy

Chris Murphy is a Democrat representing Connecticut’s 5th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives. The 5th District stretches from just west of Hartford to the New York border, containing the towns of Waterbury, Danbury, New Britain, and Meriden, as well as the vast majority of Litchfield County.

Chris was first elected to Congress in 2006, defeating 24-year-incumbent Nancy Johnson by running a positive, grassroots campaign. Since his election to Congress, Chris has maintained a constant presence throughout the district when he’s not representing Connecticut in Washington. Chris’ attentiveness to his constituents is well known – an article in a Capitol Hill newspaper, Roll Call, said that Chris is “considered ‘omnipresent’ back home” due to his commitment to knocking on doors year round and holding dozens of supermarket office hours.

In Connecticut and in Washington, Chris’ career has centered on his strong advocacy for better, more affordable health care. In Connecticut, he served as Senate Chair of the Public Health Committee in the General Assembly for four years, authoring Connecticut’s Stem Cell Investment Act and the state’s landmark ban on smoking in the workplace. During his second term in Congress, Chris was appointed to the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee where he took part in the drafting of the historic health care reform law. As the legislation moved through Congress, Chris was a leading voice for the public option and putting Americans back in charge of their health care.

Chris’ great-grandfather and grandfather climbed into the middle class through jobs at Fafnir Bearing Company in New Britain, and his family history has caused Chris to become a firm believer in the imperative of keeping manufacturing jobs in the U.S. Toward that end, Chris founded the Buy American Caucus, a bi-partisan Congressional group dedicated to ensuring that U.S. industrial policy incentivizes companies to create jobs here at home.

Since his days as a student activist, Chris has been committed to the issue of environmental protection, and he currently sits as Co-Chairman of the Congressional Land Conservation Caucus. This position has allowed him to advocate on behalf of the many wonderful open spaces and natural treasures the 5th District of Connecticut has to offer, such as Skiff Mountain in Kent and the Farmington Valley’s Metacomet Trail.

As the son of a public school teacher, Chris believes that education is the key to the future of our nation. In Congress, he has looked for diverse ways to improve our nation’s classrooms, from strengthening efforts to improve our traditional K-12 classrooms to supporting education in our high performing charter schools.

Throughout his time in public service, Chris has fought for equal rights and protections for all Americans – no matter their sexual orientation or identity. He has advocated for the federal government to abandon the Defense of Marriage Act, supported legislation to end employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, and fought to end the military’s ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy toward gays in the military.

Both sides of Chris’ family go back four generations in Connecticut. Chris grew up in Wethersfield, Connecticut, where his parents continue to live. He attended Williams College in Massachusetts, graduating with honors, and received his law degree from the University of Connecticut. Chris currently resides in Cheshire with his wife Catherine, a legal aid attorney, and their son Owen.

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