Meet Jess

Jess Murphy grew up in New York’s 2nd District in a working family that juggled jobs to make ends meet. Nothing about her upbringing was handed to her. She learned early what hard work, instability, and resilience actually look like — and how quickly families can fall behind when systems stop working. That experience shaped everything she’s done since.

From a young age, Jess believed leadership isn’t about titles or status — it’s about stepping in when something isn’t working and taking responsibility for fixing it. That belief took her to Washington, D.C., where she studied political science and began advocating for women’s leadership and civic engagement. She learned how policy gets made — and how often the people most affected by it are the last to be heard.

After working in Washington, Jess came home to Long Island to focus on the issue that defines opportunity for nearly every family here: housing.

For the past seven years, Jess has led operations in New York’s housing sector, managing large residential communities in one of the most expensive housing markets in the country. She’s worked at the intersection of tenants, owners, local government, and regulation — navigating crises, enforcing accountability, and helping communities function as real homes, not just buildings. She’s seen firsthand how rising costs, broken systems, and policy decisions determine whether families can stay rooted or are pushed out.

Jess understands housing not as an abstract issue, but as a daily reality. She’s a homeowner in the district, and she knows that buying a home here is only the beginning. Keeping it — as taxes, insurance, and everyday costs rise — is a constant balancing act shared by families across Long Island.

She still bartends in NY-02 — not as a talking point, but because it keeps her grounded in real life. The conversations she has behind the bar don’t make headlines, but they tell the same story again and again: people working harder just to stay in place, systems that don’t respond when families need help, and leaders who too often fail to listen.

Jess isn’t a career politician. She’s part of a new generation of leaders — pragmatic, people-first, and grounded in real-world experience. She believes government should be accountable to the people it serves, focused on lowering costs, protecting democracy, and making sure working families have a fair shot at stability.

Her vision is simple:

A district where people can afford to live, grow, dream, and stay.
A Long Island where opportunity isn’t priced out.
Leadership rooted in real experience — not political theater.

Jess is running for Congress because NY-02 deserves solutions that are bold, practical, and built around the realities families face every day.