Greg Murphy

Gregory Francis Murphy (born March 5, 1963) is an American urologist and politician who is a member of the United States House of Representatives from North Carolina's 3rd Congressional District since 2019. He formerly served as a Republican Representative in the North Carolina General Assembly from 2015 to 2019.

Murphy was raised in Raleigh, North Carolina, and attended Needham Broughton High School where he graduated as Valedictorian of his class. Following high school, Murphy attended Davidson College as an Edward Crosland Stuart Scholar for his undergraduate education. He then went on to complete Medical School at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he graduated as a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society.

After finishing surgical training, he and his wife settled in Greenville, North Carolina. Murphy has been active in his local community and was awarded the Pitt County Citizen of the Year Award in 2019 by the Boy Scouts of America.

Murphy has traveled extensively as a medical missionary. When he was 20 years old, Murphy spent a summer in Bihar, India, working in a Catholic leprosy hospital. He subsequently has worked as a medical missionary throughout Africa, Nicaragua, as well as in the US following Hurricane Katrina. Murphy was featured on the NBC Nightly News with Ann Curry on the “Making a Difference” segment on February 8, 2010, for his work leading a group of doctors and nurses immediately after the earthquake in Haiti`

Prior to public office, Murphy held a variety of leadership roles in both academia and the medical field. This includes serving as president of a medical practice and also serving as Chief of Staff of Vidant Medical Center. Additionally, Murphy was a member of the ECU School of Medicine faculty and served as Davidson College Alumni President from 2015 to 2017 while also serving on the Board of Trustees.

Murphy, a member in good standing of the North Carolina Institute of Medicine, has received many awards throughout his medical career. In 2017, Murphy was given Distinguished Leadership Award by the American Association of Clinical Urologists. In 2019, Murphy was given the Distinguished Alumni Award by the UNC School of Medicine.

Elections

Murphy was appointed to the Assembly in November 2015 and served the 9th District of Pitt County, to finish the term of Brian Brown, who resigned.

On November 8, 2016, he faced Brian Farkas, and won the election with 22,540 votes (57.52 percent) while Farkas had 16,648 votes (42.48 percent).

Murphy filed for re-election for his seat in February 2018. The race in the 2018 general election was between Murphy and Kristoffer (Kris) Rixon.

Tenure

During his second term in the North Carolina General Assembly, Murphy served as Senior Chair of Health Policy and championed several health care initiatives.

In 2017, he introduced the STOP Act (Strengthen Opioid Misuse Prevention Act) which was North Carolina’s first major legislative initiative to confront the opioid epidemic. The STOP Act significantly limited the number of opioid pills being able to be prescribed and set up a controlled substance reporting system to allow physicians and pharmacies to be aware of patient’s pain medication prescriptions. Following the STOP ACT, Murphy then introduced the HOPE Act which aided Law Enforcement to help curtain drug trafficking. These two majors initiatives, along with other interventions, were credited with having North Carolina’s Opioid Overdose deaths decline for the first time in over a decade.

Additionally, Murphy successfully introduced legislation which helped veterans get access to hyperbaric oxygen therapy as a means for treatment of traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder. Also, following the deaths of three newborns in eastern North Carolina, Murphy subsequently introduced legislation to improve birthing standards for birth centers in North Carolina.

State legislative committees

Elections

2019 U.S. special election

In 2019, Murphy announced his campaign for the United States House of Representatives special election in North Carolina's 3rd congressional district to replace Walter B. Jones Jr., who died in office. Murphy went on to win the runoff on July 9, 2019, against pediatrician Joan Perry by a margin of 59.7 percent to 40.3 percent. In the general election on September 10, 2019, he defeated former Greenville Mayor Allen M. Thomas by a margin of 61.7 percent to 37.5 percent.

Committee assignments

United States House Committee on Education and Labor

United States House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology