Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut has been hospitalized after suffering a stroke during his son’s hockey game.
“Yesterday afternoon, Senator Murphy started experiencing numbness in his arm while at his son’s hockey game,” the senator’s chief of staff, Allison Herwitt, said in a Sunday, November 1, statement, per multiple outlets. “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.”
Murphy, 53, shares two sons — Owen and Rider — with his ex-wife Catherine Holahan. The pair married in August 2007 and divorced in July 2026, two years after their amicable November 2024 separation.
According to Herwitt, “doctors are encouraged” by Murphy’s progress in the wake of his hospitalization, adding that he is ‘awake and alert, and we are optimistic he will make a full recovery.”
No additional information regarding Murphy’s health status has been publicly revealed at the time of publication. Us has reached out to Murphy’s staff for comment.
U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) Getty Images
While Murphy is not up for re-election during the 2026 midterm elections on Tuesday, November 3, he has been busy on the campaign trail for various Democratic nominees as the nation nears a contentious and pivotal election day.
“Just two days ago, I was with Senator Chris Murphy doing what he loves most: Encouraging Connecticut residents to make their voices heard and vote on Tuesday,” Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont said in a statement shared on Sunday, adding that his family is keeping Murphy and his loved ones “in our prayers.”
“There is no stronger advocate for our democracy,” Lamont continued. “And no one who fights harder for the people of this state. Chris is a great friend to Connecticut and to me personally.”
Murphy has long been a target of President Donald Trump’s ire, especially after the senator voted to convict Trump during his first 2020 impeachment trial and after he gave a bold June floor speech arguing the president should be impeached for a third time in the wake of systemic corruption allegations.
“The very unattractive (both inside and out!) Senator from Connecticut, Chris Murphy, said ‘Putin got everything he wanted.’ Actually, ‘nobody got anything,’ too soon, but getting close,” the president wrote via his social media platform Truth Social in August 2025 following Murphy’s criticism of a meeting the president took with Putin on U.S. soil and before addressing Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine.
“Murphy is a lightweight who thinks it made the Russian President look good in coming to America,” Trump continued at the time. “Actually, it was very hard for President Putin to do so. This war can be ended, NOW, but stupid people like Chris Murphy, John Bolton, and others, make it harder to do so.”
