Nonetheless, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) has materialized as a powerful voice of opposition pounding the airwaves and social media as congressional Democrats scramble to combat Trump’s chaotic overhaul of the federal government.

Murphy is trying to match Trump’s near-constant “flood the zone” strategy that has so far featured dismantling federal programs and agencies, laying off or firing thousands of federal workers, and a stream of executive orders that have caught Democrats flat-flooded with delayed responses.

“I just think the rules are different. We have to flood the zone as well,” Murphy told the Washington Examiner in an interview. “We need to fight this guy and the billionaire takeover of government every single day. We are not used to putting out as much content as he does, but we have to get over it.”

At 51 years old and in his third term, Murphy is comparatively young to the Senate’s median age of nearly 65 and its Democratic leaders who are in their 70s and 80s. But he’s by no means a stranger to the national spotlight and resisting Republicans.

Murphy represented Newtown, Connecticut, in the House during the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting that left 20 children and six staff members dead. Weeks earlier in the 2012 elections, he won his first term to the Senate.

Since his arrival to the upper chamber, he’s been a persistent nuisance to the gun lobby and a leading gun control advocate in Congress, which took nearly a decade to pass gun violence prevention legislation in response to the shooting. He’s also been at the center of numerous other high-profile and bipartisan pieces of legislation crafted with GOP colleagues over the years.

Now Murphy is a rising voice of resistance in a second Trump term against the backdrop of aging Democratic Capitol Hill leadership and a party without a national leader after Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss.

“We have work to do to explain to people what’s going on,” Murphy said of Trump’s actions. “It’s not going to burn in overnight, but it won’t burn in if you only make the case once or twice a week.”

Murphy takes his message outside the Beltway: ‘His audience is not the political chattering class’

A key to Murphy’s effectiveness is his ability to break down complex issues in a simple yet pointed way that avoids Washington jargon, said party strategists and Democratic colleagues across the ideological spectrum.

His style and demeanor stand in contrast to that of Senate Democrats’ top leaders, including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), 74, and Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), 80. Until this year, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), 74, was also in leadership as the third-ranked Democrat but still often participates in a weekly press conference led by Schumer and is the ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The aging trio does not “seem to be able to get out of their own way, or certainly get out of the Beltway,” criticized Jon Reinish, a Democratic strategist and former aide to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), who now chairs Senate Democrats’ campaign arm.

Schumer was recently put on blast by The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart for explaining the impacts of Trump’s tariff threats against Mexico and China by brandishing a can of Corona beer and an avocado at a press conference to show items that could increase in price. Stewart pleaded for Democrats to “please stop f****** trotting Schumer out there every time Trump traverses into the unreal.”

“[Murphy] isn’t trying to give a civics lesson, or Schoolhouse Rock how a bill becomes law, or teach 11th grade history. He is sharply, persuasively laying out an argument, telling you exactly what the issue is, and mobilizing those who listen,” Reinish said. “It’s very clear that his audience is not the political chattering class within the Beltway. It’s people outside the Beltway, and he’s showing some real verve and talent in terms of reaching them.”

Murphy has ramped up the volume of social media content in Trump’s first month back in the White House, frequently appears on Sunday morning talk shows, provides daily interviews in the Capitol to large scrums of reporters seeking his take, and recently held a town hall with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) to field questions and concerns from constituents.

Among his plethora of online posts was a live video on Instagram lasting more than 30 minutes — with the help of a vodka and grapefruit juice cocktail known as a Greyhound — after a “long, long day filled with a lot of bulls***.” The video came in the wake of Trump saying the U.S. should “take over the Gaza Strip” during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“There’s no way to assure world leaders of anything. This administration is going to be a disaster for the planet, American democracy may not survive it, and we shouldn’t sugar coat it,” Murphy told reporters ahead of last weekend’s Munich Security Conference, an annual meeting of world leaders in Germany. “I wouldn’t recommend any Democrats go over there to try to tell European leaders things are going to be all right. They should plan for Trump to hand Ukraine to Putin, to hand Taiwan to China, and for America to be a fundamentally weaker, lesser power four years from now.”

Murphy has been anything but subtle on his warnings that he believes America is already facing a “constitutional crisis” under Trump’s second term from actions that critics say subvert the law and require the approval of Congress, such as shuttering the U.S. Agency for International Development, shifting federal dollars allocated by Congress, and Elon Musk’s sprawling access to sensitive government data as part of the Department of Government Efficiency’s quest to slash government waste, fraud, and abuse.

Murphy takes no issue with offering swing voters blunt counter-messaging that some Democrats have worried could alienate those who may have voted for Trump.

“I haven’t seen anything to suggest that swing voters are okay with Elon Musk having access to their personal data at Treasury or the Department of Health and Human Services,” Murphy told the Washington Examiner. “I do not think that they expected Donald Trump to hand over our government to billionaires and for our foreign policy to become just a vehicle for Elon Musk’s enrichment. I don’t think we need to be worried about telling that story pretty loudly and boldly.”

Murphy has not expressed presidential aspirations of his own for 2028, despite some online encouragement of late. But he has a proven ability for fundraising, and his campaign spending for political ads on Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has exploded in recent weeks.

He raised more than $12 million in the two years leading up to his reelection in November for what is a solid blue seat, according to federal election records. His campaign has spent $1.5 million on Meta ads since May 2018, almost $330,000 of which was spent last week alone.

Murphy was elected in December by Senate Democrats to leadership in the lesser-known role of deputy Democratic Conference secretary, a position he equated on social media to Dwight Schrute being known as assistant to the assistant regional manager in the hit TV series The Office.

In simpler terms, Murphy was tapped to help redefine the party’s policy and messaging strategy after stinging election losses. He frequently joins Schumer, Durbin, and other prominent senators at a weekly press conference on Senate Democrats’ agenda.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), who came to the Senate just two years before Murphy in 2011, described Murphy as someone who “has a lot of options ahead” to rise up in leadership.

Durbin has not stated his reelection plans for next year. He quipped that Murphy should take his job but followed up on a more serious note on his place in the caucus.

“I think the leadership roles that he has taken with the new administration really indicate that he has a bright future,” Durbin told the Washington Examiner. “I don’t want to suggest any limits to his ambition.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), one of the chamber’s most progressive senators, hailed Murphy for showing what she called “real courage” to taking on Trump and Musk, adding that “no one delivers that message with a harder punch than Chris.”

But the constant sense of urgency to take on Trump does not appeal to everyone, particularly Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA). A first-term senator with centrist tendencies and a willingness to buck his party, Fetterman indicated there’s too much hysteria from Democrats more broadly that is directed toward Trump.

“We will have the most leverage when those kind of [government] cuts and those kinds of decisions impact my [Republican] colleagues,” Fetterman told reporters of federal workforce layoffs and cuts made by DOGE. “That’s why I’m going to work with my new colleague here in Pennsylvania, [Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA)] and that’s why I’m not throwing a bunch of cheap heat and screaming. I have to figure out a way to work on that, and I’m not going for cheap likes on social and turning that into an email for fundraising and that kind of s***.”

Anti-Trump messaging with a side of bipartisanship

For Murphy’s part in being a leading anti-Trump voice, he’s played an abnormally prevalent role in bipartisan deal-making. He’s led negotiations with Republicans on high-profile bills like gun control, illegal immigration, and the Electoral Count Act after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

The most recent case came last Congress under President Joe Biden, when Murphy worked with Sens. James Lankford (R-OK) and now-retired Arizona independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema on a bipartisan border deal to curb illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border. But the compromise crumbled before it was even unveiled ahead of the 2024 elections once Trump and conservatives deemed it insufficient to combat the scale of illegal crossings.

Lankford, now in Republican leadership, characterized Murphy as “smart,” “well-informed,” and “stubborn.” He reflected in hindsight that he, Murphy, and Sinema should have more forcefully and publicly presented a unifying voice to combat what he called “false information” being shared by Republicans about the deal.

“Our commitment was we’re not going to talk about the details in the media, we’re going to keep this among the three of us to fight this out,” Lankford recalled. “But once false information was out there, we let it just sit out too long. But he was understanding of that. It’s where we were.”

Warren, who voted against the bipartisan border bill, described Murphy as someone who is “working to get things done” but declined to entertain a question about whether he could rise in leadership.

“We’re here to try to get things done for people who need our help,” Warren said. “Chris has been delivering for working families for years, and that’s what makes him an effective communicator today.”

For better or worse in his cause against Trump, Murphy is not the galvanizing force among GOP voters that certain Republican lawmakers are for Democratic voters, such as Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Josh Hawley (R-MO).

“I don’t think very many Republicans know him, thinking about voters,” Hawley said. “He’s probably every bit or more prominent than I am, but does he galvanize? If I go home, I just think most people wouldn’t know who he is.”

Samantha-Jo Roth contributed to this report.