Congress
Chris Murphy gives $525K to party, state committees
Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy is giving more than $500,000 to Democratic national and state committees working to boost the party in the midterms.
Murphy will announce Monday — according to details first shared with Blue Light News — that he is investing $200,000 with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, $100,000 with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and $100,000 to the Democratic National Committee.
He is also spreading a total of $125,000 across 25 state Democratic parties.
“Donald Trump and his MAGA agenda are failing the American people. Democrats can pass a new minimum wage, reign in Trump’s illegal war, and keep his billionaire friends in check,” Murphy said in a statement. “But we need majorities to do so. That requires investment.”
Murphy’s contributions come amid speculation that the lawmaker harbors 2028 presidential ambitions. They are also landing as Democrats believe they are within striking distance of winning the Senate majority after they’ve expanded the map and Trump’s numbers threaten to drag down Republicans.
In all, Murphy has contributed more than $2.5 million over the 2026 campaign cycle, including transferring nearly $250,000 to Democratic Senate candidates and raising more than $300,000 directly for Senate candidates. He also is expected to do more fundraisers in the final stretch of the midterms, saying that his aim is to support “candidates ready to build a populist movement.”
His support could bolster the candidates he backed in the primaries — including Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, who is running to succeed retiring Sen. Tina Smith.
Murphy is part of a group of progressive senators who endorsed some candidates, like Flanagan, who were either not supported or running against candidates backed by the DSCC or Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
“His support has helped us build the momentum and resources we need to win,” Flanagan said in a statement of Murphy. “His leadership challenging the political influence of greedy corporations and fighting for working people is exactly what Washington needs more of, and I’m proud to have him in our corner as we work to bring a stronger, more people-focused vision to the Senate.”
Sen. Ron Johnson is sending a letter Monday requesting a conference meeting to discuss the midterm results and a delay in the leadership election.
Johnson has gathered enough signatures to force the meeting under the Senate GOP’s rules and is proposing the gathering for 9 a.m. Tuesday.
“Tuesday’s result was a stunning defeat,” Johnson and his backers write in the letter to Conference Chair Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), a copy of which was obtained by POLITICO. “Holding leadership elections without engaging in a robust discussion and evaluation of how those running for leadership intend to lead would be political malpractice”
Republicans still expect their leadership election to be held Tuesday, where Majority Leader John Thune is so far unopposed to lead the party next year in the minority.
Sen. Chris Murphy announced Friday that he has been released from the hospital after suffering a stroke last week, but will miss “several weeks” of Senate votes while he continues to recover.
“The doctors are very encouraged by the progress I’ve made so far,” the Connecticut Democrat said in a statement. “In order to take my recovery seriously and get back to work on the quickest timeline possible, I will be spending several weeks at a rehabilitation center after being discharged from the hospital today.”
He added that he remains in touch remotely with his staff and colleagues.
Murphy, who was hospitalized last weekend, said Friday that he was “diagnosed with a small bleed in the thalamus region of my brain.” Jose Suarez, the Chief of Neurosciences Critical Care at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, said in a separate statement released by Murphy’s office that the senator “experienced a small hemorrhagic stroke.”
“He has shown tremendous progress, and at the current rate of improvement, we expect that he will make a full recovery following rehabilitation,” Suarez added.
Murphy is the latest senator to suffer a stroke in recent years. Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) were both hospitalized for strokes in 2022. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), at that time a Senate candidate, also had a stroke in 2022 that he later described as near fatal.
The head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus said his group will still be power brokers in a massive Democratic majority in a strategy memo previewing plans for next term.
“While some in the press have speculated that a majority of this size undermines our influence within the caucus, they have it exactly backwards,” Rep. Greg Casar of Texas said in the Friday memo obtained by Blue Light News. “Big majorities are good for getting big things done. Our goal is not to win a battle against other Democratic caucuses. It is to pass longstanding progressive priorities that bring down costs, root out corruption, and boost wages.”
The CPC will have at least 105 members next term, according to the memo. If Democrats had a narrow majority, progressives — and any other faction in the caucus — could have used their votes as leverage. Now that presumptive speaker Hakeem Jeffries will have as many 30 votes to spare, Democrats broadly are recalibrating their approach next term.
Casar laid out a “three-pronged” strategy for the CPC to “wield our power” in the three-page memo — tackling legislation, oversight and “holding Donald Trump to his word on populist economic policies.”
“Small majorities give corporate special interest groups the ability to block popular populist policies by recruiting a small number of opponents; a big majority gives us the advantage,” he said.
Casar previewed how the CPC can engage with Trump, noting that “one of the few bright spots for bipartisan lawmaking” was a housing bill that banned private equity firms from buying homes. He noted the caucus should push Trump to cap credit card interest rates, lower credit card fees for small businesses and lower prescription drug costs.
“While we oppose [Trump] strongly on the vast majority of fronts, we should send bills to his desk that would lower prices and raise paychecks. If he signs them, good. If he vetoes those bills, that will propel us to a continued Democratic majority and a trifecta where a Democratic president can sign these proposals into law,” he said.
Casar also outlined oversight targets beyond the administration, urging Democrats to specifically investigate corporations that use customer data for “surveillance pricing,” health care companies that are “taking advantage of seniors” through the Medicare Advantage program and artificial intelligence labs who are “putting jobs and lives at risk.”
“By focusing not just on the Trump administration but also on big corporations and billionaires, we will show the American people we are not just anti-Trump but also pro-worker and pro-consumer,” he said.
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