Top Democrat ‘Centrist’ Announces She Won’t be Seeking Re-Election

A top Democrat centrist has now announced that she won’t be seeking re-election in the upcoming 2022 midterms.

As The Hill reports:

Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.), a key leader among centrist House Democrats, announced Monday that she won’t seek reelection next year as her party faces increasingly tough odds for keeping its majorities in Congress.

Murphy, a co-chair of the Blue Dog Coalition, said in a video announcement that she wanted to spend more time with her family, including her two children.

“These last few years have been some of the most rewarding moments of my life, but also some of the most challenging. Public service is not without personal sacrifice, and as a mom of two young children, my time away from them has been hard. For them. For me. And for our family,” Murphy said.

Murphy was first elected to the House in 2016 when she unseated a 12-term GOP incumbent, Rep. John Mica, the former chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. She was one of only six Democrats to unseat a House GOP incumbent that year, which was another disappointing election cycle for the party with former President Trump‘s victory.

Murphy was the first Vietnamese American to ever be elected to Congress, she was born in Vietnam a country her family then fled by boat after the Communist takeover.

Matthew Williams