EMILYs List Endorses Representative Stephanie Murphy for Re-Election in 2018
March 2, 2017
EMILYs List Endorses Representative Stephanie Murphy for Re-Election in 2018
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, endorsed Representative Stephanie Murphy (FL-07) for re-election.
“Since Day One in office, Representative Stephanie Murphy has been a tireless advocate for women and families in Florida,” said Stephanie Schriock, president of EMILYs List. “By introducing legislation to ensure that our country’s national security needs are placed above partisan politics, and by fighting to protect young people’s access to affordable health care, Stephanie has already proven herself – just months into her first term – to be a true champion for American values. Now more than ever, we need public servants like Stephanie who will defend our national security, fight for the middle class, and protect the rights of immigrants and refugees. The EMILYs List community of over five million is proud to continue to stand with Stephanie.”
Stephanie Murphy is running for re-election to continue her fight to expand economic and educational opportunities for all. Stephanie was born in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. After the fall of Saigon, she’s said, “Families associated with the South Vietnamese and American governments, like my own, were at risk of being sent to re-education camps and subjected to forced labor, torture, starvation and disease.” When she was just six months old, her family escaped Vietnam on a tugboat that ran out of fuel, leaving them stranded on the South China Sea. The U.S. Navy rescued them and helped them reach a refugee camp in Malaysia, from which Stephanie’s family ultimately immigrated to Virginia with the help of a local church. Stephanie and her family came to America seeking freedom and opportunity, and she is committed to helping others live out the American dream. Stephanie’s parents worked at a power plant and tile manufacturer during the day and cleaned office buildings at night, and she became the first woman in her family ever to go to college. After graduation, Stephanie began a career in the private sector until the events of September 11th motivated her to pursue a career in public service and to earn a master’s degree from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. She served as a national security specialist in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, where she received numerous awards, including the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Civilian Service, and she has served as a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Stephanie re-entered the private sector when she moved to Winter Park, Florida, where she still lives today with her husband Sean and their two young children, Liem and Maya. She worked as an executive and taught finance and social entrepreneurship at Rollins College before successfully running to flip a seat and represent Florida’s 7th Congressional District.
“America’s greatness is not an abstract concept to me,” Stephanie has said. “I didn’t discover it from words on a page or lyrics in an anthem. My patriotism is the product of a life lesson instilled by U.S. service members who showed grace to desperate strangers at a time when they needed it most.” As a former national security specialist with experience working on counterterrorism issues, Stephanie is committed to confronting threats abroad without undermining our values. After Donald Trump issued his executive order on immigration, she spoke out strongly in opposition, arguing that it would only serve to “violate fundamental American values and undermine our national security. We must work,” she said, “in a bipartisan manner to strengthen our refugee policy in a way that keeps us secure and upholds our values.” Stephanie has called education “the single biggest factor changing the course” of her life, and is deeply committed to expanding access to education for all. As a business executive and educator, Stephanie cares deeply about growing Florida’s economy and creating jobs to help working families get ahead. One of the first pieces of legislation that she cosponsored in Congress was a bill to support entrepreneurship among women scientists. Stephanie is pro-choice and firmly committed to fighting to protect a woman’s right to make her own reproductive health care decisions, and will fight back against the GOP’s dangerous attempts to roll back Americans’ access to the health care they need.
EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, has raised over $500 million to support pro-choice Democratic women candidates – making them one of the most successful political organizations ever. Our grassroots community of over five million members helps Democratic women wage competitive campaigns – and win. We recruit and train candidates, support strong campaigns, research the issues that impact women and families, and turn out women voters. Since our founding in 1985, we have trained nearly 10,000 women to run and helped elect 116 women to the House, 23 to the Senate, 12 governors, and over 800 to state and local office. Forty percent of the candidates EMILYs List has helped elect to Congress have been women of color – including every single Latina, African American, and Asian American Democratic congresswoman currently serving.
