Patricia Lynn Murray (née Johns; 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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%.
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%.
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. 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.
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%.
In the 2022 election, Murray won reelection to a sixth term over Republican Tiffany Smiley.
119th United States Congress Committee assignments