Saxapahaw, NC – The Connecticut senator, Chris Murphy, is not drawing crowds of the stadium size as Vermont Bernie Sanders senator and New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez They are while touring the country talking to voters. But in a concert hall full in the rural area of North Carolina, people are beginning to see the Democrats as worthy of the National Care Center.
Murphy and the representative Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., Have been organizing events in the districts of the Republican Congress in recent weeks, walking to Republican legislators such as Representative Richard Hudson, who represents the area they visited on Thursday. Hudson, the president of the republican party campaign of the house, has Republicans discouraged from celebrating municipalitiesThen Murphy and Frost decided to hold one in their territory in North Carolina.
“We are doing the work that these Republican and senators will not President Donald Trump. “I want to make sure that everywhere, in every corner of this country, people are willing to stand up and fight.”
Like other Democrats Grab for an answer For Trump’s elections, insecure of how to confront it, Murphy is channeling his own frustration and angry in a sustained bombing of television appearances, fundraising appeals, Senate floor speeches and events such as North Carolina. He is also talking directly with voters on social networks, even through Long live videos on Instagram Where he sits in his kitchen with a cocktail and tries to explain what he sees as “the central history” of the Trump presidency: “The multimillion -dollar possession of our government made possible for the destruction of our democracy.”
It is a methodical approach for Murphy, 51, a serious mind legislator who has been better known for his struggle to stop armed violence following 2012 shooting In Sandy Hook primary school in Newtown, Connecticut, which delicate 20 first -degree students and six educators.
While the kitchen speaks on Instagram, it seems more naturally to Murphy to dig up a crowd, her message clearly resonates with the voter base of her party, many of which are Angry with Democrats in Washington For inaction. He raised around $ 8 million in the first quarter of the year, a significant sum that could rival Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez totals, which have been attracting much larger crowds on a tour together.
“I mean, I’m not Bernie Sanders,” Murphy said in an interview after the event in Saxapahaw. “I will not attract 70,000 people. But that does not mean that I still do not have the obligation to try to leave and support a national mobilization.”
The frustration with the leaders of the Democratic Party was injured last month, with most of the anger addressed to the Democratic leader of the Chuck Schumer Senate of New York, who voted for a project of republican law to keep the government open just when the base expected to see more fights of its elected officials. Murphy was strongly against the bill, even if he opposed that the Democrats would trigger a government closure.
“I think that when people see us involved in an adverse risk behavior, it is much less likely to be presented so that manifestations are involved in the type of civil disobedience that we might need to save democracy,” Murphy said.
Their collection of funds and their flood of media and events raise questions about their future ambitions. But it is not clear where Murphy’s time could take. He insists that he is not thinking of a presidential offer or a future in the leadership of the Senate after Democrat number 2, Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, announced this week that will retire next year.
“I think it is probably not a coincidence that my content broke and more people listen to me at a time when I do not get up every day thinking about my personal political future,” said Murphy, who was re -elected for the Senate last year.
“There will not be a choice in 2028 if we do not win this fight at this time. Therefore, it seems nonsense to think about anything other than the emergency that exists today. I am not trying to avoid the question. It is not a policeman. That is legitimately what drives me.”
Ron Osborne, president of the Democratic Party in Alamance County, where Thursday’s event was, said he had not previously considered Murphy an important contender for the presidency in 2028. But “he is doing the right things,” said Osborne.
“He’s talking to others could do the same and not,” said Osborne, and “that requires courage.”
Terry Greenlund, a 78 -year -old Democrat who was also at the audience, said he thinks Murphy “has a way of talking to people.”
“I think it’s time for a new generation to move with some new views, insight and energy,” Greenlund said, echoing many others in the room.
Murphy, 51 and the father of two teenagers, seem to be enjoying attention. He joked in the event that he was not as “great” as Frost, who is the youngest member of Congress at age 28. But Murphy is still younger than many of his colleagues, who have controlled the game for years.
“I’m trying to be a great dad,” Murphy said.
Murphy was in Missouri on Friday after visiting a republican district in Michigan with Frost last month. And they are not the only Democrats who venture in red states. In addition to Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, the governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, the 2024 vice presidential candidate, and the representative of Khanna de California has also recently traveled to talk to voters in republican areas.
Murphy said he does not want to “reinvent the wheel” with his collection of funds, but he doesn’t want to sit on it either. He said he plans to help organizations mobilize voters before the mid -period elections 2026 and also press Republicans while trying to boost taxes and expenses of expenses in Congress.
“The only way history tells us that it prevents an elected leader from converting a country outside democracy is mass mobilization,” he said.
“Our party has made mistakes, and if we don’t learn from those mistakes,” Murphy said, “we are cooked.”
