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Patty Murray

Patricia Lynn Murray (née Johns; born October 11, 1950) is an American politician who has served as president pro tempore of the United States Senate since 2023 and the senior United States Senator from Washington since 1993. A member of the Democratic Party, Murray served in the Washington State Senate from 1989 to 1993. She was Washington's first female U.S. senator and is the first woman in American history to hold the position of president pro tempore. Murray is also the youngest senator to occupy the office of president pro tempore in more than five decades.[1] As president pro tempore, Murray is third in the line of succession to the U.S. presidency.[a]

Patty Murray

Patrick Leahy

Position established

Position abolished

Harry Reid

Patricia Lynn Johns

(1950-10-11) October 11, 1950
Bothell, Washington, U.S.
Rob Murray
(m. 1972)

2

  • Politician
  • environmentalist
  • educator

Born and raised in Bothell, Washington, Murray graduated from Washington State University with a degree in physical education. She worked as a pre-school teacher and, later, as a parenting teacher at Shoreline Community College. A long-time advocate for environmental and education issues, Murray was elected to serve on her local school board in King County. She ran for the Washington State Senate in 1988, and defeated two-term incumbent Bill Kiskaddon. She served one term before launching a campaign for the United States Senate in 1992. She has been re-elected five times, most recently in 2022.


As a senator, Murray has been a part of party leadership since 2001, having served as chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Democratic Conference secretary, and assistant Democratic leader. She currently chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee. Before assuming her current roles, Murray has previously chaired at various times, the Veterans' Affairs Committee, the Budget Committee, and the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Murray garnered national attention in 2013, when she and Republican representative Paul Ryan announced that they had negotiated a two-year, bipartisan budget, known as the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013. Murray is currently the third-most senior senator,[2] the most senior Senate Democrat, the longest serving woman to ever serve in the Senate, and the dean of Washington's congressional delegation.

Early life and education[edit]

One of seven children, Murray was born in Bothell, Washington, a daughter of David L. Johns and Beverly A. McLaughlin.[3] Her mother was an accountant. Her father served in World War II and was awarded a Purple Heart. Her ancestry includes Welsh, Irish, Scottish, and French-Canadian.[3] When she was a teenager, her family was forced to apply for welfare assistance when her father became disabled due to multiple sclerosis. He had been the manager of a five-and-ten store.[4] Murray attended Saint Brendan Catholic School as a young child.


Murray received a Bachelor of Arts degree in physical education from Washington State University in 1972.

Early career[edit]

Murray was a preschool teacher for several years, and taught a parenting class at Shoreline Community College from 1984 to 1987.[5] As a citizen-lobbyist for environmental and educational issues, Murray has said that a state representative once told her she could not make a difference because she was just a "mom in tennis shoes".[6] The phrase stuck, and she later used it in her successful campaigns for the Shoreline School District board of directors (1985–89), Washington State Senate (1989–93), and United States Senate (1993–present).[6] Murray was successful in gathering grassroots support to strike down proposed preschool program budget cuts.[7][8]


In 1988, Murray unseated two-term incumbent Republican state Senator Bill Kiskaddon.[9]

(chair)

Committee on Appropriations

Committee on the Budget

Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

Subcommittee on Children and Families

Committee on Veterans' Affairs

Political positions[edit]

Abortion[edit]

Murray supports abortion rights. She opposed the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, a bill criminalizing abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, saying on the Senate floor: "I oppose the fact that we are still voting on whether women and doctors are best equipped to make health care decisions — or politicians here in D. C."[41] She also voted against restricting US funding for UN family planning programs.[42]

Agriculture[edit]

In March 2019, Murray was one of 38 senators to sign a letter to United States Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue warning that dairy farmers "have continued to face market instability and are struggling to survive the fourth year of sustained low prices" and urging his department to "strongly encourage these farmers to consider the Dairy Margin Coverage program".[43]


In June 2019, Murray and 18 other Democratic senators sent USDA Inspector General (IG) Phyllis K. Fong a letter requesting that the IG investigate USDA instances of retaliation and political decision-making and asserting that not to do so would mean these "actions could be perceived as a part of this administration’s broader pattern of not only discounting the value of federal employees, but suppressing, undermining, discounting, and wholesale ignoring scientific data produced by their own qualified scientists".[44]

Environmental policy[edit]

In October 2017, Murray was one of 19 senators to sign a letter to Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Scott Pruitt questioning Pruitt's decision to repeal the Clean Power Plan, asserting that the repeal's proposal used "mathematical sleights of hand to overstate the costs of industry compliance with the 2015 Rule and understate the benefits that will be lost if the 2017 repeal is finalized", and that denying science and fabricating math would fail to "satisfy the requirements of the law, nor will it slow the increase in frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, the inexorable rise in sea levels, or the other dire effects of global warming that our planet is already experiencing".[45]


In February 2019, in response to reports of the EPA intending to decide against setting drinking water limits for perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) as part of an upcoming national strategy to manage the aforementioned class of chemicals, Murray was one of 20 senators to sign a letter to Acting EPA Administrator Andrew R. Wheeler calling on the EPA "to develop enforceable federal drinking water standards for PFOA and PFOS, as well as institute immediate actions to protect the public from contamination from additional per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)".[46]

Federal budget[edit]

On December 10, 2013, Murray announced that she and Republican Representative Paul Ryan had reached a compromise agreement on a two-year, bipartisan budget bill, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013.[47]


The deal was scheduled to be voted on first in the House and then the Senate. Some believed House Democrats would pass the deal as a way to reduce the sequester cuts,[48] but the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee, Chris Van Hollen, said on December 12, 2013, that members of his party were outraged that House Republicans are planning to adjourn without addressing unemployment benefits.[49] Van Hollen said that "it is too early to say" whether a majority of House Democrats would vote for the budget bill.[49] The deal was also unpopular with many conservatives.[50]


Murray put the controversial intelligence ports-data project Global Trade Exchange into the Homeland Security budget.[51]

Personal life[edit]

Murray is married to Rob Murray and has two grown children: Sara and Randy. She lives on Whidbey Island.[86]


On August 2, 2006, The New York Times wrote that in 1994, Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina attempted to grope his then-freshman colleague Patty Murray of Washington. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that Murray asked for, and received, an apology. Through a spokeswoman, Murray declined to comment further on the incident.[87][88]

Women in the United States Senate

official U.S. Senate website

U.S. Senator Patty Murray

campaign website

Patty Murray for Senate

at Curlie

Patty Murray

on C-SPAN

Appearances