AP Photo/Tony Dejak
Steve Stivers.
"As I said last night, the circumstances surrounding this situation are extremely disappointing to me," Stivers, an Ohio congressman, said in a statement. "However, the NRCC is undefeated in special elections this year and I'm supremely confident that will continue."
"In the meantime, we look forward to seeing how national Democrats can spin yet another special election loss into a so-called 'moral victory,'" he continued.
Murphy, a congressman from Pennsylvania who prominently held anti-abortion positions, resigned following a firestorm over his suggestion to a mistress that she have an abortion.
"You have zero issue posting your pro-life stance all over the place when you had no issue asking me to abort our unborn child just last week when we thought that was one of the options," wrote Shannon Edwards, a forensic psychologist with whom Murphy was having an extra-marital affair, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.
"I get what you say about my March for life messages. I've never written them," Murphy responded in a text message."Staff does them. I read them and winced. I told staff don't write any more. I will."
Murphy has served Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional District since 2003. The seat will be filled via a yet-to-be-announced special election. So far in 2017, Republicans have not lost any of the four contested special congressional elections that have taken place.