# Stephanie Murphy Former Democratic U.S. Representative for Florida's 7th district in the Orlando area (2017–2023). She was a centrist leader of the [[Blue Dog Coalition]] and one of the seven Democrats on the [[House Select Committee on the January 6th Attack]]. ## Background Born Đặng Thị Ngọc Dung on September 16, 1978, in Ho Chi Minh City. Her family fled Vietnam by boat in 1979, when she was six months old. When their boat ran out of fuel, the U.S. Navy rescued them, and they settled in Northern Virginia. She studied at William & Mary and Georgetown's School of Foreign Service, and worked as a national security specialist at the Defense Department after 9/11. She later taught business at Rollins College. In 2016 she unseated 12-term Republican John Mica with 51% of the vote. ## January 6 committee Pelosi named her to the committee on July 1, 2021. On July 12, 2022, she co-led its seventh public hearing with [[Jamie Raskin]]. That hearing traced how Trump's December 19, 2020 "will be wild" post mobilized the [[Proud Boys]] and [[Oath Keepers]] (see [[Donald Trump - be there will be wild]]). She announced on December 20, 2021 that she would not seek re-election, and left Congress in January 2023. Like every member, she was covered by Biden's January 2025 preemptive pardon. ## After Congress On July 9, 2025, she entered the 2026 race for mayor of Orange County, Florida. In the August 18, 2026 nonpartisan primary she finished third with about 26%, roughly 2,500 votes short of the runoff, which went to Tiffany Moore Russell and Chris Messina. ## KB significance She is the committee's centrist anchor, a Blue Dog national-security Democrat rather than a progressive. That complicates the "partisan witch hunt" frame used against the committee. Her hearing was the one that tied Trump's own post to the militia groups later convicted of seditious conspiracy. ## Related - [[House Select Committee on the January 6th Attack]] - [[Blue Dog Coalition]] - [[Future Forum]] — chair emeritus in the 117th Congress - [[Donald Trump - be there will be wild]]