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Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) is on the rise as a Democratic Party voice calling for a new direction as the party seeks to regroup following a stinging election loss.
Murphy has been among the most prominent figures arguing for a new strategy to expand the party’s tent and for leaders to embrace economic populism to reconnect with voters whom the party has lost.
If followed, Murphy’s advice could result in a different outlook for the Democrats and elevate him as the party seeks the next generation of leaders.
“He brings some things to the table that are a little bit unique… this is a guy who’s never lost an election, and he won several times when he was not the favorite in places that Democrats typically have not done well,” said Connecticut-based Democratic strategist Roy Occhiogrosso. “That’s something that he brings to the table that I think people will start paying more attention to.”
Murphy has held political office for more than two decades, despite just turning 50 last year. He was first elected to the state Assembly at 25 years old and later elected to the state Senate before winning election to represent Connecticut’s 5th Congressional District in the U.S. House in 2006.
After three terms in the House, he was elected to the Senate in 2012 to succeed retiring Sen. Joe Lieberman (I). Murphy was just easily reelected to a third term last month.
During his tenure, Murphy has scored several legislative victories and has particularly become a leading voice on gun legislation in the aftermath of the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting in Newtown, Conn. He served as the lead Democratic negotiator for the bipartisan gun control law that Congress passed and President Biden signed in 2022, following the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting.
But he has gained more attention in recent weeks for his calls for an overhaul of Democratic Party strategy following Vice President Harris’s defeat to President-elect Trump in November.
A few days after the election, he laid out what he thinks went wrong in the election in a thread posted on X, calling for a “rebuild” of the left. This includes a broadening of the Democratic tent and engaging in “big fights” with elites like billionaires and large corporations.
“Real economic populism should be our tent pole,” Murphy said.
He later expanded on his argument in a memo to other Democrats two weeks later, saying populism is the key to reconnecting with working class voters that the party has lost.
He said part of winning back this group includes changing how Democrats talk about the economics of those in power.
“There are many factors to winning back the majority of lower income voters, but I am confident that one key element is being more purposeful and transparent in talking about power — why corporations and billionaires have too much, and why we, as Democrats, are the only party that is serious about putting that power back in the hands of workers,” he said.
This comes as Trump won the presidency a second time with a message centered around a populist argument of standing up for those being left behind and taking on the establishment.
Democratic strategist Len Foxwell said the key to Trump’s success on this front is his tone and campaigning style. He argued that Trump’s policies on trade fall under populism but many of his economic policies, such as on taxes, are not much different from Republicans before him, who represent a time when populism didn’t dominate the GOP.
“It was a tone that he adopted. It was the way in which he presented himself to the American people, as a guy who will look after and stand up and fight for the working and middle class,” Foxwell said.
“Style is content in the modern political age, and I hate to say it, but he was stylistically of the moment, and we were out of sync,” he added.
In his memo, Murphy also shared polling data he said demonstrated that a more populist message would be potent across the political spectrum and class levels. One finding was that 82 percent agreed that corporations and economic elites having too much power and the government not doing enough about it is one of the biggest problems facing the country.
That included clear majorities of Democrats, Republicans and independents, and non-college-educated and college-educated voters.
Occhiogrosso said embracing populism is “certainly a piece” of what Democrats must do, though how best to deliver their message to voters is a critical part.
“If you go back over time, generations, centuries, the economic populist message, when it connects with people, is almost always successful,” he said.
Murphy’s priorities also extend to what may be the first major signal of the direction for the party during the second Trump administration: the race for the chair of the Democratic National Committee. Several candidates have thrown their hats in the ring for the Feb. 1 election.
Murphy told The Hill that he wants a chair who is interested in “blowing some things up.”
“I haven’t been shy about expressing my belief that this is a moment to rebuild the party,” he said. “I think our party is broken, and I don’t think this is a moment to run back the same strategy or to put Band-Aids.”
Democratic strategist Victor Reyes said Murphy may be the right messenger across the moderate and progressive factions within the party.
“He’s not viewed with complete suspicion by the left, and he’s not viewed with complete suspicion by the moderates. So you need somebody who has credibility across the Democratic demographic,” he said, calling him “well-regarded” and a “good spokesperson.”
Occhiogrosso said Murphy is “certainly in the mix” among possible future leaders of the party and possible presidential candidates.
He noted that the senator has taken up high-profile issues viewed as progressive, such as gun control, but was able to win in moderate state House and state Senate districts against incumbent Republicans when he first ran for office.
Reyes said connecting the two factions may be what’s needed, or Democrats risk another Republican succeeding Trump.
“I think Murphy could be a bridge between those, but if those two don’t bridge, then I do think there’s some risk that another Republican with a loud megaphone could step in in four years and keep the Democrats in a bad place for a long, long time,” he said.
Caroline Vakil contributed.
