Stephen Bingham, the son of Alfred Mitchell Bingham and Sylvia Doughty Knox Bingham, was raised in Salem, Connecticut where he grew up among the state's wealthy class. His father was an author, attorney, and activist who was elected to the Connecticut State Senate as a New Deal Democrat in 1940 and served one term; he was also the editor and a founder of the left-leaning "Common Sense". His grandfather, Hiram Bingham III was a governor and a U.S. Senator from Connecticut as well as the discoverer of the Machu Picchu ruins in Peru.