Meet Patty Murray
Patty Murray was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1992 by waging an underdog campaign against a 10-year veteran of the U.S. House of Representatives. With the support of her family and friends, she won, becoming the first woman to serve Washington State in the U.S. Senate.
Since gaining her seat, Senator Murray has worked tirelessly to support the needs and values of Washington State, and today she holds the honor of being elected by her peers to serve in the Senate’s Leadership as Conference Secretary. She is also the first woman ever to serve as Chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, where she continues to work each day to ensure that the VA is working for our veterans to get them the care and benefits they deserve. Currently, she also serves as the Chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, where she leads the national effort to elect Democrats to the U.S. Senate.
Additionally, she serves on the Senate Appropriations, Budget, Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), and Rules and Administration Committees. She also chairs the Transportation and Housing and Urban Development Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee and the Employment and Workplace Safety Subcommittee of the HELP Committee.
As the daughter of a disabled WWII veteran and the first woman to serve on the Senate’s Veterans’ Affairs Committee, Senator Murray is a recognized leader in championing the cause of our nation’s veterans. Her advocacy for veterans – particularly those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan – is rooted in her belief that we have an obligation to serve those who have sacrificed for us. Her work on behalf of veterans has been recognized and honored by the VFW, Vietnam Veterans of America, American Ex-POWs, the Paralyzed Veterans of America and the Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs.
Since 9/11, Senator Murray has paid special attention to ensuring that our nation is protected by working to improve the security of our nation’s ports and the cargo they receive. Of the millions of cargo containers the U.S. receives every year only a fraction are checked for threats. One of the original authors of the SAFE Ports Act of 2006, Senator Murray was successful in seeing this bill singed into law by President Bush.
In 1980, the Washington State Legislature threatened to cut critical funding for a parent-child education program. Moved to fight the cuts, Murray went to Olympia to lobby against the cuts. In the midst of her efforts, one state legislator told her she could not make a difference because she was "just a mom in tennis shoes." The grassroots campaign she subsequently organized successfully saved the program.
Since then, Murray has been a tireless advocate for improving the quality, affordability and opportunities within our nation’s education system. She has placed special emphasis on ensuring students, parents, and teachers have the resources and tools available to ensure each child is able to reach their full potential. She has focused her efforts on reducing class sizes, early childhood education, reforming our nation’s high schools, and college affordability.
Senator Murray works to ensure that every family has the opportunity to secure the American dream for their own families by promoting economic development and stimulating job growth through her work on the Appropriations Committee. Our nation’s economy depends on ensuring we make smart investments that promote growth and spread opportunity – Patty Murray has used her position on Appropriations to direct funding toward critical infrastructure and technological innovations that support the people of Washington State and the nation in their drive to create strong communities that support strong economies.
Senator Murray has used her position on the HELP committee to promote increased access, affordability, and innovation in healthcare. She has placed particular emphasis on ensuring the integrity of FDA by working to increase drug safety, access, and that agency decisions remain rooted informed by science. She tirelessly advocates for and defends women’s access to needed healthcare services – including the right to reproductive choice. In the Senate, she has also used her position on the Budget Committee to improve and strengthen the long term viability and health of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
As a native daughter of Washington State, Senator Murray has been inspired by the state’s beauty, diversity, and natural heritage to champion efforts to protect our environment and stop global warming. She was successful in helping to protect the Hanford Reach, the last free-flowing stretch of the Columbia River and she wrote and sponsored the Wild Sky Wilderness Act which was signed into law in 2008 and which protects more than 106,000 acres of wilderness in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.
Born in Bothell on October 11, 1950, Patty Murray is one of seven children. Murray was educated in the public schools of Bothell and received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Washington State University. She is married to Rob Murray and they have two adult children, Sara and Randy. Sara is married to Nitin Bhagat. Randy and his wife Erin have a son, Aidan, the Murrays’ first grandchild.