Sen. Chris Murphy awake and alert after stroke, office says

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut is in hospital after a stroke on Saturday but is awake and alert, and his office expects him to make a full recovery, his chief of staff said Sunday.

Allison Herwitt said in a statement that Murphy, 53, “started experiencing numbness in his arm while at his son’s hockey game,” NBC News reported. He went to a local hospital, where doctors found he had had a stroke, and he was then moved to Johns Hopkins for further monitoring.

“The doctors are encouraged by his progress, he is awake and alert, and we are optimistic he will make a full recovery,” Herwitt said, according to CBS News. She said he is “responding well to treatment.”

The reports reviewed gave no further medical details and no date for his release.

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont said Sunday that Murphy was “better than yesterday,” based on a conversation with someone in the senator’s office, The Connecticut Mirror reported. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the state’s other senator, said he expects his “great friend and colleague” back in the Senate soon.

The stroke came in the final days of the midterm campaign. Murphy is not on Tuesday’s ballot, but he had been travelling the country for Democratic candidates and was due to campaign Sunday in New Hampshire with Rep. Chris Pappas, the party’s Senate nominee there, NBC reported.

Well-wishes crossed party lines. Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Pete Ricketts of Nebraska offered prayers, NBC reported, and Connecticut’s Republican gubernatorial nominee, Ryan Fazio, wished him a full and speedy recovery, the Mirror said. U.S. President Donald Trump said he was “really surprised” to learn of the stroke, according to NBC.

Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, who had a stroke while campaigning for his own seat, posted that he was “rooting for Chris and his family for a full and speedy recovery.” NBC noted that Democratic Sens. Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland both had strokes in 2022 and have since recovered.

Murphy has represented Connecticut in the Senate since 2013, after three terms in the House, and CBS said he has been seen as a possible White House contender in 2028. He has been an outspoken critic of Trump. On Thursday, at a Middle East Institute event in Washington, he called a possible plan to resume the war with Iran after the midterms “insane,” NBC reported.

Democrats are trying to win control of Congress on Tuesday, in a campaign marked by a late surprise in Michigan’s Senate race and low approval numbers for Trump in the final polls. Murphy’s seat is not affected by this week’s vote.

File photo: Chris Murphy’s official Senate portrait from the 113th Congress. Photo: United States Senate, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

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