McCarthy fallout: Sen. Patty Murray is now 2nd in line for the presidency

Sen. Patty Murray is once again second in the presidential line of succession.

The Washington Democrat was chosen as the Senate president pro tempore in January following the retirement of Patrick Leahy of Vermont. Typically, Murray’s position would be third, following the vice president and the speaker of the House. However, with Republican Kevin McCarthy’s ouster from the speakership, the established chain has been altered.

Due to plans put in place following the Sept. 11 attacks, McCarthy had prepared a list of replacements to immediately take over the job should he no longer be able to fill it. At the top of that list was North Carolina Republican Patrick McHenry, a McCarthy ally who has served in Congress for nearly two decades.

Because McHenry is only speaker pro tempore and was not officially selected for the role, he is now skipped, meaning Murray moves up a slot. The same situation was in place in January, when the House took five days and 15 votes to select McCarthy for the role.

When Murray was voted in as Senate president pro tempore during the previous period of tumult in the House, she was asked about now being third in line to the presidency and joked, “Well, today I’m second, because Kevin McCarthy’s not speaker.”

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Who is Murray?

The 72-year-old Murray has represented the Evergreen State since winning election in 1992. When she decided to run, there were only two women serving in the Senate, and Murray was inspired by watching the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, which were presided over by then-Senate Judiciary Chairman Joe Biden. Murray and other women were troubled by the treatment of Anita Hill, who had accused Thomas of sexual misconduct.

“After the Senate and the all-male Judiciary Committee bungled the Anita Hill hearings in 1991, millions of women across the country, including me, were inspired to rise up and fight for change,” Murray wrote in 2018, when the confirmation hearings for then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh were underway.

Murray won her primary by portraying herself as a “mom in tennis shoes” and helped spearhead “the Year of the Woman,” which included her election to the Senate as well as victories by Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer in California and Carol Moseley Braun in Illinois. Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, who was reelected that year, disagreed with the descriptor, saying, “Calling 1992 the year of the woman makes it sound like the year of the Caribou or the year of the Asparagus. We’re not a fad, fancy or a year.”

Murray has won reelection five times. In addition to her role as Senate president pro tempore, she is also chair of the powerful Appropriations Committee. She has previously served as chair of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs, Budget and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committees.

According to KIRO-TV in Seattle, Murray’s office said of her current positioning that “she takes the responsibility seriously but hopes the House will act quickly, so Congress can get back to work.”

The chain of succession

Congress has established multiple succession acts over the country’s history, most recently in 1947. The current chain is vice president, then speaker of the House, then Senate president pro tempore. After that it is an established chain through the 15 executive departments, skipping over anyone who does not fit the Constitution’s established requirements to serve as president.

For example, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas — who were born in Canada and Cuba, respectively — are not eligible.

Murray will stay second in line until the House is able to select a new speaker from the range of potential candidates. The new leader will immediately step into a situation where government funding is needed to avoid a looming shutdown in November.