Patricia Lynn Murray (; born October 11, 1950) is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator from Washington, a seat she has held since 1993. From 2023 to 2025, she held the position of president pro tempore of the United States Senate, becoming the first woman to hold the position. Prior to serving in the U.S. Senate, she served in the Washington State Senate from 1989 to 1993. She is a member of the Democratic Party.
Born and raised in Bothell, Washington, Murray graduated from Washington State University with a degree in physical education. She worked as a preschool teacher and later as a parenting teacher at Shoreline Community College. An advocate for environmental and education issues, Murray was elected to serve on her local school board in King County. One of her early elected political mentors was Donn Charnley.
In 1988, she was elected to the Washington State Senate, defeating two-term incumbent Bill Kiskaddon, and served one term before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 1992. She has been re-elected five times, most recently in 2022.
As a senator, Murray has been in party leadership since 2001, having served as chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Democratic Conference secretary, and assistant Democratic leader. Throughout her tenure, she has chaired the Senate Appropriations Committee, Veterans' Affairs Committee, the Budget Committee, and the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Murray drew national attention for her work in negotiating the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 with Republican congressman Paul Ryan.
Murray is currently the third-most senior U.S. senator, the most senior Senate Democrat, the longest-serving female senator upon Dianne Feinstein's death in 2023, and the dean of Washington's congressional delegation since 2017 upon Representative Jim McDermott's retirement.
Early life and education One of seven children, Murray was born in Bothell, Washington, a daughter of David L. Johns and Beverly A. McLaughlin. 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. 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. 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 Murray was a preschool teacher for several years and taught a parenting class at Shoreline Community College from 1984 to 1987. 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". The phrase stuck, and she later used it in her successful campaigns for the Shoreline School District board of directors (1985–1989), Washington State Senate (1989–1993), and United States Senate (1993–present). Murray was successful in gathering grassroots support to strike down proposed preschool program budget cuts.
In 1988, Murray unseated two-term incumbent Republican State Senator Bill Kiskaddon.
U.S. Senate (1993–present) Murray has served in the United States Senate since her election in 1992. For the 118th Congress in 2023, she was elected Senate president pro tempore after Patrick Leahy retired from the Senate; the office is usually held by the longest-serving senior senator of the majority party, but Senator Dianne Feinstein (who was also elected in 1992, but took her seat a few months prior to Murray because she won a special election, rather than a regularly scheduled one) declined the post due to ailing health, leaving Murray the next in line for the position. Murray ultimately became the most senior serving Democrat upon Feinstein's death later that year. Murray is the first woman to hold the position.
Murray is the first woman, and 33rd senator overall, to have cast 10,000 votes in the Senate, having reached the threshold on April 20, 2023.
Elections
1992
In 1992, Murray announced her candidacy for the U.S. Senate after The Seattle Times published a series of articles alleging that incumbent Democratic Senator Brock Adams had sexually assaulted a number of women. Adams denied the allegations, but his popularity weakened considerably, and he chose to retire rather than risk losing the seat for his party. Murray advanced alongside Republican Congressman Rod Chandler from the blanket primary. In the general election, she defeated Chandler, 54% to 46%, despite being outspent by a wide margin. Chandler seemed to have the upper hand in one of the debates until he responded to Murray's criticism for spending $120,000 on congressional mailings during rising unemployment and declining family income as part of an economic recession by quoting the Roger Miller song "Dang Me". Chandler was further damaged by the unpopularity in the Pacific Northwest of President George H. W. Bush, who was largely blamed for the recession.
1998
In 1998, Murray faced Congresswoman Linda Smith, a staunch conservative and maverick who was one of nine House Republicans to vote against confirming U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich in early 1997, opposed gay rights and viewed homosexuality as a "morally unfit inclination". Murray heavily outspent her and was reelected, 58% to 42%.
2004
In 2004, Murray faced Republican U.S. Representative George Nethercutt. Term limits became an issue in the campaign, as Democrats seized on Nethercutt's broken term-limits pledge that he had made when he unexpectedly unseated Speaker Tom Foley in 1994. Nethercutt was also hampered by his lack of name recognition in the more densely populated western part of the state, home to two-thirds of the state's population. Washington has not elected a senator from east of the Cascades since Miles Poindexter in 1916. Other important issues included national security and the war in Iraq. Nethercutt supported the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, while Murray opposed it. Nethercutt was a heavy underdog from the start and his campaign never gained much traction. Murray was reelected, 55% to 43%.
Democratic primary election resultsPartyCandidateVotes%DemocraticPatty Murray (incumbent)709,47792.20DemocraticWarren Hanson46,4876.04DemocraticMohammad Said13,5261.76
2010
The 2010 election was the first Senate election to be held under the new blanket primary since Initiative 872 had passed in 2004. In the August 17 primary, Murray appeared on the ballot alongside four other Democratic candidates, six Republican candidates, a Reform Party candidate and three independent candidates. She received a plurality, 46%, and advanced to the general election along with her main Republican challenger, former state Senator and two-time gubernatorial nominee Dino Rossi, who received 33%. Leading up to the election, several prominent Washington State newspapers endorsed Murray.Re-elect Patty Murray to the U.S. Senate , The News Tribune, October 10, 2010. Rossi conceded the election to Murray on November 4, 2010, two days after election day. She won 52.36% of the vote to Rossi's 47.64%, Murray's smallest reelection margin to date.
2016
Murray ran for a fifth term in 2016. She faced three Democratic challengers in the August 2, 2016, primary election. In the general election, she faced King County Councilman Chris Vance. She defeated Vance, 59% to 41%.
2022
In the 2022 election, Murray won reelection to a sixth term over Republican Tiffany Smiley.
119th United States Congress Committee assignments Source:
Committee on Appropriations (ranking member) Committee on the Budget Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on Veterans' Affairs
Caucus memberships Senate Oceans Caucus Senate Aerospace Caucus Afterschool Caucuses Congressional NextGen 9-1-1 Caucus Congressional Coalition on Adoption
Legislation On February 28, 2013, Murray introduced the Green Mountain Lookout Heritage Protection Act into the Senate. The bill would prevent the United States Forest Service from removing a building from the Glacier Peak Wilderness Area in the state of Washington unless the agency determines that the structure is unsafe for visitors. Murray argued that the bill should be passed in order to help the tourism industry in the area while protecting the lookout point in question. The bill would be "a very small step in what will be a very long recovery" and would "provide a glimmer of hope for the long-term recovery of this area", she said, referring to the area's recovery from the casualties and damage caused by the 2014 Oso mudslide. The bill passed both the House and the Senate.
Political positions Abortion 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." She voted against a bill that banned federal funding for Planned Parenthood. She also voted against restricting US funding for UN family planning programs.
Agriculture In March 2019, Murray was one of 38 senators to sign a letter to 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".
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".
Environmental policy In October 2017, Murray was one of 19 senators to sign a letter to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator 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".
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)".
Federal budget 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.