Stacy's Bio
With nearly 17 years of experience working in the Senate Democratic Leadership, Stacy Rich joined the Cornerstone team as a Principal in January 2020 after serving as the Leadership Staff Director for Sen. Patty Murray’s (D-WA) office.As a top aide to Murray, the third most senior Democrat in the U.S. Senate, Stacy was responsible for advising the Senator on legislative strategy, leadership planning items, Senate procedure, member priorities and outreach and floor activity, while also supporting the Senator’s work as Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee and as second most senior Democratic member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, on which Sen. Murray serves as Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (Labor-HHS).
Stacy has been at the center of all major policy debates for over a decade, serving as Sen. Murray’s liaison to the Senate Democratic Leader, Democratic Whip, other Senate/House leadership teams, individual Member offices, and committees. She worked closely with her leadership counterparts and senior committee staff to help craft and implement legislative strategies to successfully move bills through the Senate floor and coordinated floor communications and caucus messaging efforts to highlight key Democratic priorities. Having spent much of her Senate career on or near the Senate floor, Stacy has provided strategic counsel to Members, senior staff and committees on a wide array of legislative issues, including policies regularly considered in the course of a Senate session such as appropriations, defense authorizations, health and tax extenders and nominations. She also played key roles supporting Sen. Murray’s work in leading the caucus to successfully pass landmark pieces of legislation including the Affordable Care Act, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 (Murray-Ryan), Every Student Succeed Act (ESSA), and 21st Century Cures.
Stacy began her career on Capitol Hill in 2002 in the office of former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) and subsequently served as a part of the floor team in the Democratic Cloakroom under both Leader Daschle and former Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).
Stacy earned her bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University in 2002 and her master’s degree in comparative politics from the London School of Economics in 2007.