Allison Herwitt says Murphy is expected to make a full recovery
Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy was hospitalized after suffering a stroke and transferred to Johns Hopkins for further monitoring, according to his office. Murphy’s chief of staff, Allison Herwitt, said the 53-year-old senator was responding well to treatment.
In a Sunday statement, Murphy’s chief of staff, Allison Herwitt, wrote: “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.”
Herwitt said Murphy was expected to make a full recovery.
Murphy recently returned from a multistop tour in the Middle East. After the tour, Murphy warned that President Trump would dramatically escalate his war on Iran after the midterm election.
Murphy, 53, is a Democratic senator whom NPR described as a prominent figure in the party and a prolific campaign surrogate for candidates through the midterm cycle.
NPR also reported that Murphy was viewed as a possible 2028 presidential contender and had carved out a position as a foreign policy leader and champion of aggressive executive branch oversight.
NPR described Murphy as the latest in a string of lawmakers to experience a health crisis this year.
Other health cases NPR cited included Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who missed months of Senate work during a lengthy hospital stay and rehabilitation process, and Rep. Tom Kean, R-N.J., who was missing from the Capitol for months for what he later announced was treatment for depression.
NPR also reported that in 2022, three prominent Democratic lawmakers — Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and then-Senate candidate John Fetterman — were all hospitalized for strokes.