Patricia Lynn Murray (née Johns; born October 11, 1950) is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator from Washington, a seat she has held since 1993. A member of the Democratic Party, she held the position of president pro tempore of the Senate from 2023 to 2025.

A member of the Democratic Party, Murray served in the Washington State Senate from 1989 to 1993. She was Washington's first female U.S. senator and is the first woman in American history to hold the position of president pro tempore. Murray is also the youngest senator to occupy the office of president pro tempore in more than five decades.

Born and raised in Bothell, Washington, Murray graduated from Washington State University with a degree in physical education. She worked as a pre-school teacher and, later, as a parenting teacher at Shoreline Community College. A long-time advocate for environmental and education issues, Murray was elected to serve on her local school board in King County. One of her early elected Political Mentors was Donn Charnley. She ran for the Washington State Senate in 1988, and defeated two-term incumbent Bill Kiskaddon. She served one term before launching a campaign for the United States Senate in 1992. She has been re-elected five times, most recently in 2022.

As a senator, Murray has been a part of party leadership since 2001, having served as chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Democratic Conference secretary, and assistant Democratic leader. She currently chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee. Before assuming her current roles, Murray has previously chaired at various times, the Veterans' Affairs Committee, the Budget Committee, and the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Murray garnered national attention in 2013, when she and Republican representative Paul Ryan announced that they had negotiated a two-year, bipartisan budget, known as the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013. Murray is currently the third-most senior senator, the most senior Senate Democrat, the longest-serving female senator ever, and the dean of Washington's congressional delegation since 2017 upon Representative Jim McDermott's retirement.

One of seven children, Murray was born in Bothell, Washington, a daughter of David L. Johns and Beverly A. McLaughlin. Her mother was an accountant. Her father served in World War II and was awarded a Purple Heart. Her ancestry includes Welsh, Irish, Scottish, and French-Canadian. When she was a teenager, her family was forced to apply for welfare assistance when her father became disabled due to multiple sclerosis. He had been the manager of a five-and-ten store. Murray attended Saint Brendan Catholic School as a young child.

Murray received a Bachelor of Arts degree in physical education from Washington State University in 1972.

Murray was a preschool teacher for several years, and taught a parenting class at Shoreline Community College from 1984 to 1987. As a citizen-lobbyist for environmental and educational issues, Murray has said that a state representative once told her she could not make a difference because she was just a "mom in tennis shoes". The phrase stuck, and she later used it in her successful campaigns for the Shoreline School District board of directors (1985–89), Washington State Senate (1989–93), and United States Senate (1993–present). Murray was successful in gathering grassroots support to strike down proposed preschool program budget cuts.

In 1988, Murray unseated two-term incumbent Republican state Senator Bill Kiskaddon.