Patrick Murphy (Florida politician)

Murphy was born in Miami and raised in Key Largo, the son of Tom Murphy Jr., a construction company CEO, and his second wife, Kathleen.[3][4] Murphy's parents divorced when he was a child, and Murphy was later adopted by his father's third wife, Leslie. Murphy graduated from Palmer Trinity School in Miami and then went on to take a post-graduate year at the Lawrenceville School, a private prep school in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, in 2001-2002.[5][6]

As a 19-year-old freshman college student in 2003, Murphy was arrested outside a Miami Beach nightclub on charges of disorderly intoxication and possessing a fake driver's license. The charges were ultimately dropped. Murphy called the incident "the biggest mistake of my life" and the "biggest learning experience of my life."[7]

Murphy studied business administration at the University of Miami, earning a bachelor's degree with dual majors in finance and accounting in 2006.[8][9] (In the past, Murphy's official biographies said that he had dual degrees, but in fact he earned a single degree with dual majors; Murphy's campaign said that the error was "inadvertent" and corrected the biographies.[9])

Murphy worked for his family's construction business as a construction laborer beginning at age 19, and then in the company's estimating and purchasing departments and as an assistant project engineer.[6]

After college, Murphy worked for his father's business, Coastal Construction, for about a year before spending two and a half years (from September 2007 to May 2010) working as an auditor for Deloitte and Touche in Miami.[6][8][10][11]

After passing the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) examination, he chose to become certified in Colorado, because his degree had insufficient credits to meet Florida's higher education requirement. After obtaining certification in September 2009, he was promoted from "audit assistant" to "audit senior" at Deloitte.[8][10] Politico reported that Murphy had overstated his experience as an accountant, saying he had worked for "several years" as an accountant when in fact he worked as a practicing CPA for less than a year, although he did much of the same accounting work as others at the firm.[12]

He was hired, in May 2010, as vice president of his family's construction business.[13] After the 2010 BP oil spill, he was tasked with creating a subsidiary of his father's company, called Coastal Environmental, that secured contracts to remove oil in the Gulf of Mexico.[14] Murphy served as vice president of Coastal Environmental,[8][10] and was one of its three directors from 2010 to 2012 (after being elected to Congress, Murphy stepped down as a director but remained an owner).[10] As vice president, he ran the company's day-to-day operations for six months, until October 2010, when the Coast Guard called off oil skimming operations in the Gulf.[8][10] PolitiFact.com found that "Murphy's description of his past employment is based on actual circumstances, but at times he omits a full explanation."[10]

A 2011 gift of stock from his father boosted his personal net worth by $1–5 million.[15] His father also gave $100,000 to key Democrats the same year he started to consider running for Congress.[8]

Murphy was formerly a member of the Republican Party, donating the maximum individual contribution of $2,300 to Mitt Romney's 2008 presidential campaign and $4,800 to other Republican candidates. Four months prior to announcing his candidacy for Congress, Murphy switched his registration to the Democratic Party and donated $4,000 to a variety of Democratic candidates.[28] He says he switched from being a Republican and a Romney supporter because of his disgust with the Tea Party movement, also citing his opponent Allen West's fiery rhetoric.[29]

Murphy is regarded as one of the more moderate Democrats in Florida's congressional delegation; he describes himself as "fiscally responsible, socially progressive."[6] He was described in The Huffington Post as a "pro-choice, pro-LGBT rights but 'not ultra-liberal' Democrat who values fiscal responsibility."[13] The top five contributors to his campaign committee for the 2013-2014 time period were his family's construction company, professional services firm Deloitte, plumbing company Suntech Plumbing, multinational investment banking firm Goldman Sachs, and the PAC of the liberal foreign policy organization J Street.[30]

At the time he first took office in 2013, Murphy was the youngest member of the House of Representatives, at age 29.[6]

Murphy has served as chair of two bipartisan organizations, the United Solutions Caucus and No Labels.[31]

Murphy ran for the U.S. Senate in 2016. Incumbent Republican Senator Marco Rubio unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, and had initially said he would vacate the seat. However, after dropping out of the presidential race, Rubio reversed himself and decided to run for re-election.[42] The Democratic primary race was contentious and occasionally negative,[43] with Murphy and fellow Democratic Congressman Alan Grayson diverging "occasionally in policy, but drastically in personality."[44] Murphy defeated Grayson in the August 30 primary.[45]

Murphy's father, Thomas Murphy Jr., and the family's construction company contributed $500,000 in early 2016 to a pro-Murphy super PAC, Floridians for a Strong Middle Class. The elder Murphy subsequently gave an additional $1 million to Senate Majority PAC, a Democratic super PAC supporting a number of Democratic Senate candidates, including Murphy.[46][47][48]

Murphy and Rubio participated in two debates in October 2016. During the debates, Rubio criticized Murphy's background. Murphy responded by saying "You continue to throw out these lies. They have all been debunked by PolitiFact." PolitiFact responded that "Murphy has exaggerated his credentials, and his opponents have also exaggerated their attacks on Murphy."[49]

Murphy was defeated by Rubio in the general election, with Murphy receiving 44% of the vote.[50]

Murphy is a Roman Catholic[51] and is of Irish Catholic heritage.[52]

[53]

• House website (Archived)
• Appearances on C-SPAN