“I appreciate Mr. Beat’s advocacy for this important issue and am proud to pledge my commitment to the Uncap the House movement,” Murphy said. “Reps are responsible for over three times as many constituents today as when the House was originally capped in 1929. The average district then was a little over 200,000 constituents – today it is 760,000. That’s stagnation, and it’s bad for voters. It makes it much harder for Reps to really understand and serve their constituents and unfortunately it also means that many are more swayed by special interest money than the needs of the folks they are supposed to represent.

The 9th has been an unfortunate example of this for the past 15 years under Morgan Griffith, who is notoriously beholden to corporate and special interest donors and conspicuously absent from day-to-day life in the 9th. I’m committed to doing things differently and fighting for a future we all deserve. And one thing we all absolutely deserve is reps who are close to and in touch with their constituents. I hope others will join me in making this important commitment to strengthening our representative democracy.”