Power corrupts. It even destroys families.
And now a Democrat Senator was caught cheating in this incriminating photo.
Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat known for his relentless anti-Trump rhetoric, was recently spotted cozying up to a progressive media mogul—just months after announcing his separation from his wife.
Murphy, 51, was caught “cuddling” with Courier Newsroom publisher Tara McGowan, 39, last Monday at the Red Hen, a trendy DC restaurant just a mile from Capitol Hill, according to a source who shared a photo of their intimate encounter with the New York Post.
The source described the pair as “being cutesy” while browsing the menu, with Murphy even wrapping an arm around McGowan’s shoulder.
Despite his public image as a champion of “democracy,” Murphy is still legally married to Cathy Holahan, a DC-based lawyer. Public records confirm that neither has filed for divorce in Connecticut or DC since the couple announced their separation last November after 17 years of marriage.
A DC Democrat insider told Semafor that McGowan is in a romantic relationship with Murphy and recently posted a selfie with him on her private Instagram, captioned, “not postponing joy.” Notably, McGowan deactivated her X account by Monday morning.
Murphy and Holahan, who met at the University of Connecticut law school and married in 2007, have two children together. In their November 15 email announcing their separation, first reported by the Hartford Courant, the couple insisted they would “continue to be friends and loving, collaborative parents.”
McGowan, meanwhile, finalized her own divorce from Democratic strategist Michael Halle in April 2024, a year after filing for “irreconcilable differences,” according to Rhode Island state court records. Halle is a former senior adviser to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and has deep ties to Democratic presidential campaigns.
Far from being a neutral journalist, McGowan has long used her platform to boost Murphy’s political ambitions.
Through Courier Newsroom, a digital media outlet notorious for disguising Left-wing propaganda as “news,” McGowan has consistently promoted Murphy’s positions on gun control, immigration, and foreign policy.
In November 2023, just two months after her final divorce hearing, McGowan reposted a Courier message featuring Murphy’s call to “ban assault weapons in [America].”
More recently, on February 7, 2024, Courier amplified Murphy’s talking points attacking Republicans for opposing a Democrat-led border deal, blaming “Trump’s hold over the GOP.”
Murphy has made no secret of his disdain for Trump, warning in a recent New York Times interview that “the rule of law is disintegrating” and claiming his party’s “political brand is fundamentally broken.” McGowan, ever his cheerleader, eagerly amplified these statements across social media.
In a March CNN interview, Murphy declared, “Trump sides with dictators [because] it legitimizes his plan for America: A Russian-style kleptocracy where the rich steal from us to enrich themselves”—a message McGowan promptly retweeted.
Critics have slammed Courier Newsroom as a Democrat-aligned dark money operation masquerading as independent journalism. Though the FEC dismissed a formal complaint against the outlet, former employees revealed to NOTUS that the organization’s real goal was to push “political persuasion content” disguised as news to sway voters in key swing states.
McGowan is no stranger to shadowy political operations. Her for-profit media empire, funded by Left-wing billionaires George Soros and Reid Hoffman, is just one part of her broader influence network.
She previously founded Lockwood Strategy, a campaign firm responsible for helping Virginia Democrats retake the state legislature. Her political action committee, PACRONYM, raised over $18 million to attack Trump in 2020, while her dark-money group, ACRONYM, was infamously linked to the botched Iowa caucus app that threw the Democratic primary into chaos.
As Murphy continues to position himself as a leading anti-Trump figure in Congress, his cozy relationship with a Democratic operative deeply embedded in the Left’s propaganda machine raises serious questions. Neither Murphy, McGowan, Holahan, nor Halle responded to requests for comment.
