Army Captain Patrick Murphy was patrolling Baghdad's "Ambush Alley" in August 2003 in a humvee with no windows or doors in 138 F (59 C) heat when he realized, I really need to change our foreign policy. After seven months in Iraq, Murphy came home outraged at what he viewed as a bungled operation; he blamed U.S. policy for playing a role in the deaths of 19 fellow paratroopers. "We were dramatically shorthanded," he says. "We should've had 35,000 troops for the 1.5 million Iraqis that we were responsible for in south-central Baghdad, and there were only 3,500 of us." With just $322 in his bank account, Murphy decided to challenge a popular Republican Congressman in his home district northeast of Philadelphia in 2006. Murphy won by 1,518 votes. In Congress, he has championed fellow veterans, pushing a deadline for pulling out of Iraq that garnered a White House veto. He's worked to make U.S. contracting more efficient and to require telephone companies to help soldiers retain their mobile phones while deployed overseas. He endorsed Barack Obama in August 2007, though his district voted 63% for Hillary Clinton months later. "He's got Senator written all over him," says James Carville, a Democratic strategist. Murphy, 34, just laughs off the buzz and notes that he has to get re-elected this fall. "I've got a tough race ahead of me."
— Jay Newton-Small