Murray highlights abortion rights in bid for 6th Senate term

By CHRIS GRYGIEL
Associated Press

SEATTLE (AP) — Patty Murray is running for a sixth term in the U.S. Senate and if she’s reelected she’d join two former Democratic stalwarts as among the longest serving senators from Washington state. Murray is 71 and was first elected to the chamber in 1992 during the “Year of the Woman” and has aggressively promoted her support of abortion rights ahead of the Aug. 2 primary. Her nearly 30 years in the U.S. Senate place her behind only Democratic Sens. Warren Magnuson and Henry Jackson for longest service in the chamber from the Evergreen State. Her highest-profile opponent is Republican Tiffany Smiley, a first-time candidate who has highlighted her past advocacy for her husband, a military veteran who was blinded in an explosion while serving in Iraq.