Vietnamese American member of Congress not running for re-election

SCREEN CAPTURE / FOX

Rep. Stephanie Murphy will be leaving the House of Representatives.

The lone Member of Congress who hails from Vietnam will be leaving the U.S. House of Representatives in 2022.

"I've decided not to seek another term in Congress. Serving Central Florida has been the honor of my life, but it's also been incredibly challenging for my family and me," Murphy said in a tweet last Monday, which also featured a video announcement of her plans.

Murphy, 37, a moderate Democrat who has represented her district for five years, is one of the leading moderates of the Democratic Party and currently serves as co-chairwoman of the moderate caucus, Blue Dog Coalition.

Murphy, first elected in 2016, is the first Vietnamese American woman — and second ever Vietnamese-American person — elected to Congress.

Murphy and her family immigrated to the United States when she was only 1-year old. Her parents fled communist Vietnam by boat and were rescued by the U.S. Navy at sea. Murphy’s parents worked blue collar jobs during the day and cleaned office buildings at night to support her and her brother.

After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Murphy joined the Department of Defense, leaving behind a promising career as an economic advisor. She attributed her decision to enter public service to wanting to protect the country that rescued her family from sea.

The mother of two young children, Murphy said she hopes “to open a new chapter in my life, one in which I can spend a bit more time with my family.”

"I think it's hard for people in politics and especially in Washington to understand that someone at my age would quote unquote, retire ... without having some sort of scandal or without fear of losing a reelection or without, immediately running for another position or job,” Murphy told Politico. “But really, right now I need to be with my family.”

Just last Spring, she was mulling over a run for the U.S. Senate to represent Florida. She dropped those plans when her friend and fellow Democrat Rep. Val Demings announced her intention to run for that Senate seat.

Although known as an economic moderate, she will work the rest of her term trying to pass a version of President Biden's Build Back Better plan and continue the investigation by the Jan. 6 committee. 

“While I continue to have reservations about the overall size of the legislation — and concerns about certain policy provisions that are extraneous or unwise — I believe there are too many badly-needed investments in this bill not to advance it in the legislative process,” she said in a statement about that vote. “I will work with my Senate colleagues to improve this bill, and I hope to vote on — and enact — a more streamlined version of the bill once it returns from the Senate.

Although she didn't mention it her announcement, as a co-chair of the House's Jan. 6 committee, she has received an uptick of death threats to her and her family.

In an interview with Politico announcing her departure, Murphy did not rule out a run for a different public role in the future: “We’ll have to see what happens in the future.”

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