Esty, Elizabeth, 1959-

Elizabeth Esty (née Henderson; born August 25, 1959) is an American lawyer, academic, and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, she served as a U.S. Representative from Connecticut's 5th congressional district from 2013 to 2019.

Born in Oak Park, Illinois, she was raised in Minnesota and graduated from Winona Senior High School. She earned an B.A. from Harvard College in 1981 and a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1985. She also studied International Relations at L'Institut d'études politiques in Paris for a year on a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship. She married Daniel Esty, a fellow law school student, in October 1984. The Estys settled in Washington, DC. She joined a private law firm and worked on cases defending abortion rights. In 1990 she left the practice to concentrate on health care policy and taught as an adjunct at American University. In 1994, when her husband founded an environmental law and policy program at Yale University, the Estys relocated to Connecticut where Elizabeth became a senior research scholar at Yale Law School. In 2004, she won election to the Cheshire town council in 2004, and served until she won a seat in the state assembly four years later. In the state house, Esty supported worker rights and same-sex marriage, and voted to abolish capital punishment. Esty lost her bid for reelection to the state house in 2010. When Representative Christopher Murphy announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate in 2012, Esty joined the race to fill his seat, narrowly winning against a Republican who supported abortion rights and same-sex marriage, in the general election.

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