# Erin Murphy (Massachusetts politician)

Erin J. Murphy is an American politician and educator who has served as an at-large member of the Boston City Council since December 2021. Murphy is a Democrat, and is considered one of the more politically moderate members of the council. In 2024, she unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination in the election for clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court of Suffolk County.

## Early life, family, and early career

Murphy was born and raised in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston. In her adulthood, she has continued to live in the same neighborhood, where she raised her four children. Murphy is a single mother.
For twenty years, Murphy worked as a Boston Public Schools teacher in Dorchester. Much of her work was with kindergarten and special needs students. For several years before joining the Boston City Council, she worked as a special education coordinator.
Murphy has completed philanthropic and advocacy work on the matter of substance abuse. She ran the Boston Marathon in three consecutive years to raise more than $50,000 for the Gavin Foundation. In 2016, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh recognized Murphy with the "EXTRAordinary" award. In 2017, the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women gave her their "Unsung Heroine Award" for her work.
Murphy's grandfather, Richard Murphy, founded the Dorchester United Neighborhood Association and has a public school in Boston named for him. Her sister, Darragh Murphy, is notable for founding People United Means Action (PUMA) to oppose the nomination of Barack Obama as the Democratic Party nominee in the 2008 United States presidential election.

## City council

Elected in 2021, Murphy serves as a member of the Boston City Council. While the council's elections are nonpartisan, Murphy identifies herself as being a member of the Democratic Party. One of the more politically moderate members of the council,. Murphy has established herself as one of the council's most frequent critics of Mayor Michelle Wu.

### Unsuccessful 2019 campaign

In 2019, Murphy ran in the election for the four at-large seats on the Boston City Council. She finished the election in sixth-place in the general election, thereby losing.

### 2021 election and partial term

Alongside Ruthzee Louijeune, Murphy was one of two new council members elected to an at-large seat. Incumbents Michael F. Flaherty and Julia Mejia had won reelection, while Michelle Wu and Annissa Essaibi George had each forgone reelection to the city council in order to seek election that year to the mayoralty.
Wu won the coinciding mayoral election. Under the Boston City Charter, a mayoral vacancy sees a new mayor sworn in as soon as is possible after the next mayoral election. Boston's previous permanent mayor, Marty Walsh, had resigned earlier that year to become U.S. secretary of labor, meaning Wu's assumption of office took place in November 2021, earlier than is typical for a mayor and earlier than the expiration of her at-large city council term. The Boston City Charter also specifies that a vacant at-large Boston City Council will be filled by the highest-performing runner-up who accepts the position. The first runner-up (fifth-place finisher) of the 2019 at-large city council election had been Alejandra St. Guillen, who considered serving the remainder of Wu's term before declining the opportunity. Since Murphy had been the next runner-up (the sixth-place finisher), she was given the opportunity to finish Wu's unexpired city council term. She accepted, and was sworn in December 1 to serve the final month of Wu's unexpired at-large City Council term.

### 2022–2023

Murphy began her first full city council term on January 3, 2022.
During this term, Murphy joined councilors Frank Baker, Michael F. Flaherty, and Ed Flynn in an informal grouping that often functioned as a centrist voting bloc. In September 2023, this bloc signed onto a letter urging that the Boston Public Health Commission hold a vote at their next meeting declaring the situation at Mass & Cass to be a public health emergency. In February 2023, the bloc was joined by Brian Worrell in voting against advancing a home rule petition to make the Boston School Committee a publicly elected school board. Despite their opposition, the ordinance passed 7–5; but it was vetoed by Mayor Wu, who had argued that it was an inopportune moment to make such a transition due to the need to stabilize the state of the city's schools.
The informal bloc of Murphy, Baker, Flaherty, and Flynn were the sole votes against the council's redistricting map that was initially approved by the City Council after the 2020 United States Census and which and Mayor Wu passed into law in November 2022. The redistricting process was contentious. The map would have shifted three voting precincts that have historically been predominantly Irish American into a ward that is Black-majority. While noting the Murphy acted civilly in expressing her objections, Yawu Miller of the Bay State Banner characterized the objections as being grounded in "white grievance politics". During this dispute, it was noted by Michael Jonas of Commonwealth Magazine that the bloc was not only politically moderate, but also entirely White. After a lawsuit, the map was prohibited by preliminary injunction from being used in the 2023 Boston City Council election after a ruling by Federal Judge Patti B. Saris, and an interim map was approved by the council and signed into law by Mayor Wu.
Murphy voted against a home rule petition that would seek state approval for Boston to extend voting participation in municipal (local) elections to non-citizen residents with legal status.
Murphy and Councilor Baker were the sole votes against the rent control home rule petition championed by Mayor Wu.

### 2024–present

Murphy was reelected in 2023, finishing second in the at-large election. Murphy joined Councilor Flynn in making a last-minute push to encourage Councilor Mejia to run against Ruthzee Louijeune for the council presidency. At the January 2024 inaugural session of the new council term, Flynn nominated Mejia, but Mejia declined his nomination and Louijeune was unanimously elected council president.
Murphy is chair of the council's Strong Women, Families and Communities Committee.
Murphy and Councilor Flynn proposed a resolution urging for the city to expand eligibility for Mayor Wu's pilot program providing free admission to museums for Boston Public Schools students and their families, proposing opening up to students who do not attend the city's public schools. Councilor Sharon Durkan had the resolution sent to committee for further consideration, rather than put to an immediate vote, noting that the existing program was still in a pilot phase and arguing that further discussion should be had before voting on the resolution.
In October 2024, Murphy and Councilor Flynn proposed their own alternative to Mayor Wu's initial proposal to adjust commercial property taxes. After Mayor Wu introduced a new proposal later that month (reached after a compromise between Wu and business organizations that had opposed Wu's earlier proposal), Murphy filed a request to receive information related to new city positions that had been created during Wu's mayoralty. Information requested the job description, salary (and funding source of the salary), department, date of creation, qualifications for hires, status of hiring for each position, as well as a rationale for why each position was created. She asserted that she believed that this was important information for her to have.
In November 2024, Murphy and Flynn proposed a resolution that would have recommended that the city's election department be placed under state receivership. Fellow councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson joined them in sponsoring the resolution (however, she ultimately abstained from the vote). The resolution was defeated, only receiving the votes of Flynn and Murphy in a vote of 2–7 (with four abstentions) The resolution had been proposed in reaction to ballot supply shortages experienced in the city on election day earlier that month. Other councilors expressed concern that such a recommendation would be premature, and argued that before making any such recommendation the council should first engage in due diligence (including an already-scheduled hearing featuring testimony by city election officials).

#### 2024 campaign for clerk of the Suffolk Supreme Judicial Court

Murphy unsuccessfully sought the nomination in the Democratic Party primary election of the 2024 election for court clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court of Suffolk County
Murphy announced her candidacy in March 2024. Incumbent clerk Maura Doyle (who had held the office since 1996) had already opted not to seek reelection. Murphy's opponent in the primary was public defense attorney Allison Cartwright. Since no candidates were seeking the Republican nomination, the winner of the September Democratic primary was anticipated to win the November general election without opposition.
The clerk's office manages the law admissions of lawyers, disciplinary matters pertaining to lawyers, and single-justice cases of the high-court (appeals for emergency relief). The office is regarded as relatively obscure, with few locals being able to describe it. While low-profile, the office is considered high-paying and tends to offer job security as incumbents serve longer terms than city councilors and have regularly been reelected.
Murphy was described as campaigning on a mantle of being an "old-school moderate focused on constituent services". The alignment of endorsements for each candidate led the primary to be described as a proxy battle between the city's progressive politicians and the city's more conservative "old guard". Many prominent progressive politicians endorsed Cartwright, while many practitioners of more conservative "old-school" Boston politics endorsed Murphy. Among those endorsing Murphy's candidacy were Boston city councilor Ed Flynn and U.S. Congressman Stephen Lynch, state senator Nick Collins, state representative Dan Hunt, city councilman John FitzGerald, and former mayor Raymond Flynn. Numerous of Murphy's prominent endorsers hailed from the neighborhoods of South Boston (including Collins and City Councillor Flynn) and Dorchester (including Hunt and FitzGerald). Among those supporting Cartwright against Murphy were mayor Wu, governor Maura Healey state attorney general Andrea Campbell, and congresswoman Ayanna Pressley. It was also described as a proxy battle between Mayor Wu's allies and her critics: with Wu and several allies endorsing Cartwright, and many Wu critics endorsing Murphy. These dynamics led the race to garner far more interest than elections for the office had previously attracted. Murphy and Cartwright's campaigns each raised hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Murphy was defeated by Cartwright, winning 40% of the vote to Cartwright's 60%. Cartwright was the leading performer in 216 of 271 electoral precincts. Having lost this election, Murphy now plans to run for re-election to the city council in 2025.

## Electoral history

2019 Boston at-large City Council election :
| Candidate | Primary election | Primary election | General election | General election |
| Candidate | Votes | % | Votes | % |
| Michelle Wu (incumbent) | 26,622 | 19.4 | 41,664 | 20.7 |
| Annissa Essaibi George (incumbent) | 18,993 | 13.8 | 34,109 | 17.0 |
| Michael F. Flaherty (incumbent) | 18,766 | 13.7 | 33,284 | 16.6 |
| Julia Mejia | 10,799 | 7.9 | 22,492 | 11.2 |
| Alejandra St. Guillen | 11,910 | 8.7 | 22,491 | 11.2 |
| Erin Murphy | 9,385 | 6.8 | 16,867 | 8.4 |
| Althea Garrison (incumbent) | 9,720 | 7.1 | 16,189 | 8.1 |
| David Halbert | 6,354 | 4.8 | 13,214 | 6.6 |
| Martin Keogh | 6,246 | 4.5 | | |
| Jeffrey Ross | 5,078 | 3.7 | | |
| Priscilla Flint-Banks | 4,094 | 3.0 | | |
| Domingos DaRosa | 2,840 | 2.1 | | |
| Michel Denis | 2,108 | 1.5 | | |
| William King | 1,809 | 1.3 | | |
| Herb Lozano | 1,510 | 1.10 | | |
| all others | 766 | 0.6 | 704 | 0.4 |
| Total | 137,380 | 100 | 201,014 | 100 |
2021 Boston City Council at-large election :
| Candidate | Primary election | Primary election | General election | General election |
| Candidate | Votes | % | Votes | % |
| Michael F. Flaherty (incumbent) | 41,299 | 15.0 | 62,606 | 17.4 |
| Julia Mejia (incumbent) | 38,765 | 14.1 | 62,058 | 17.3 |
| Ruthzee Louijeune | 33,425 | 12.2 | 54,898 | 15.3 |
| Erin Murphy | 22,835 | 8.3 | 43,076 | 12.0 |
| David Halbert | 16,921 | 6.2 | 42,765 | 11.9 |
| Carla Monteiro | 18,844 | 6.9 | 39,876 | 11.1 |
| Bridget Nee-Walsh | 15,118 | 5.5 | 27,591 | 7.7 |
| Althea Garrison | 16,810 | 6.1 | 25,078 | 7.0 |
| Kelly Bates | 12,735 | 4.6 | | |
| Alexander Gray | 11,263 | 4.1 | | |
| Jon Spillane | 11,155 | 4.1 | | |
| Said Abdikarim | 7,725 | 2.8 | | |
| Domingos DaRosa | 7,139 | 2.6 | | |
| Donnie Palmer Jr. | 6,823 | 2.5 | | |
| Roy Owens Sr. | 5,223 | 1.9 | | |
| James Colimon | 4,671 | 1.7 | | |
| Nick Vance | 3,943 | 1.4 | | |
| Write-ins | 845 | 0.3 | 1,350 | 0.4 |
| Total | 274,694 | 100 | 359,294 | 100 |
2023 Boston at-large City Council election :
| Candidate | Candidate | Votes | % |
| Ruthzee Louijeune (incumbent) | Ruthzee Louijeune (incumbent) | 44,641 | 20.29 |
| Erin Murphy (incumbent) | Erin Murphy (incumbent) | 43,548 | 19.80 |
| Julia Mejia (incumbent) | Julia Mejia (incumbent) | 39,187 | 18.10 |
| Henry Santana | Henry Santana | 34,151 | 15.53 |
| Bridget Nee-Walsh | Bridget Nee-Walsh | 26,775 | 12.17 |
| Shawn Nelson | Shawn Nelson | 10,512 | 4.78 |
| Clifton A. Braithwaite | Clifton A. Braithwaite | 10,299 | 4.68 |
| Catherine Vitale | Catherine Vitale | 8,560 | 3.89 |
| Juwan Skeens write-in | Juwan Skeens write-in | 113 | 0.05 |
| all others | all others | 1,549 | 0.70 |
| Total votes | Total votes | 219,965 | 100 |
2024 Democratic primary for Clerk of the Suffolk Supreme Judicial Court :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | Democratic | Allison Cartwright | 30,358 | 59.56 |
| | Democratic | Erin Murphy | 20,500 | 40.22 |
| | Write-in | others | 116 | 0.23 |
| Total votes | Total votes | Total votes | 50,974 | 100 |