Sen. Chris Murphy suffers stroke during son’s hockey game

Connecticut senator Chris Murphy has been hospitalized after suffering a stroke at his son’s hockey game.

His office disclosed the 53-year-old Democrat’s condition in a statement on Sunday.

Murphy’s chief of staff, Allison Herwitt, said that the senator “started experiencing numbness in his arm while at his son’s hockey game” on Saturday.

“He was taken to a local hospital, where it was discovered he had experienced a stroke,” she said. “He was transferred to Johns Hopkins for further monitoring and is responding well to treatment.

“The doctors are encouraged by his progress, he is awake and alert, and we are optimistic he will make a full recovery.”

Murphy has spent nearly two decades in Congress, winning a House seat in 2006 before moving up to the Senate in 2012. He is not on the ballot in Tuesday’s election.

Within the Senate, Murphy sits on the Appropriations Committee and has made his name on immigration and restrictions on guns. He is viewed as a possible candidate for more senior leadership positions in the chamber, and his name has also been raised as a potential 2028 presidential contender.

Murphy is the third Senate Democrat in recent years to have a stroke. Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland both had strokes in 2022 and have since recovered.

Pennsylvania senator John Fetterman had a stroke that same year while campaigning for his seat. He now uses adaptive technology in the Senate, including live captioning on a phone or tablet that transcribes words as people speak to him and helps him process the conversation.

Fetterman said on social media Sunday that his family “is rooting for Chris and his family for a full and speedy recovery.”

Prayers for Murphy were also offered by several Republican senators, including Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Pete Ricketts of Nebraska.