The Higher Education Ties of the Nation’s First Vietnamese-American Woman in Congress

On November 8, Democrats picked up six seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. One of the six seats that moved into the Democratic column was Florida’s Seventh District in Orlando. In that race, 37-year-old Stephanie Murphy defeated 23-year Republican incumbent John Mica by just over 10,000 votes.

Murphy was born in Vietnam and moved to United States with her family at the age of 1. Murphy has a bachelor’s degree in economics from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, and a master’s degree in foreign service from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. When she takes office in January, Murphy will be the first Vietnamese-American woman to serve in the U.S. Congress.

Before entering the political arena, Murphy was an executive at Sungate Capital and was an instructor of business and social entrepreneurship at Rollins College in Winter Haven, Florida. Earlier, she served as a national security specialist in the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense