Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., appears at a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on September 18, 2025. Murphy's office says he was hospitalized this weekend with a stroke. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images hide caption
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., has been hospitalized following a stroke, according to his office.
In a statement on Sunday, Murphy's chief of staff, Allison Herwitt, said he is expected to make a full recovery.
"Yesterday afternoon, Senator Murphy started experiencing numbness in his arm while at his son's hockey game," Herwitt wrote. "He was taken to a local hospital, where it was discovered he had experienced a stroke. He was transferred to Johns Hopkins for further monitoring and is responding well to treatment."
Murphy, 53, is a prominent figure in the party and has been a prolific campaign surrogate for candidates through the midterm cycle. Viewed as a possible 2028 presidential contender, Murphy has carved out a position as a foreign policy leader and champion of aggressive executive branch oversight.
He recently returned from a multistop tour in the Middle East, after which he warned that President Trump would dramatically escalate his war on Iran after the midterm election.
The lawmaker is the latest in a string of lawmakers to experience a health crisis this year. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., missed months of Senate work during a lengthy hospital stay and rehabilitation process. Rep. Tom Kean, R-N.J., was missing from the Capitol for months for what he later announced was treatment for depression.
In 2022, three prominent Democratic lawmakers — Sen. Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico, Chis Van Hollen of Maryland, and then-Senate candidate John Fetterman — were all hospitalized for strokes.
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