Richard Joseph Durbin (born November 21, 1944) is an American politician and attorney serving as the senior United States senator from Illinois, a seat he has held since 1997. A member of the Democratic Party, Durbin is in his fifth Senate term and has served since 2005 as the Senate Democratic Whip (the second-highest position in Democratic leadership in the Senate) and since 2025 as the Senate minority whip. He is the longest-serving Democratic whip since the position was established in 1913.
Durbin was born in East St. Louis, Illinois. After graduating from the School of Foreign Service and Georgetown University Law Center, he worked in state legal counsel throughout the 1970s. Durbin made an unsuccessful run for lieutenant governor of Illinois in 1978, and later maintained a private law practice and co-owned a pub in Springfield. Durbin was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982, representing the Springfield-based 20th congressional district.
After serving seven House terms, Durbin was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1996, and reelected in 2002, 2008, 2014, and 2020. He has served as the Senate Democratic whip since 2005—under Harry Reid until 2017, and under Chuck Schumer since 2017. During that time, he had two periods as Senate majority whip (from 2007 to 2015 and from 2021 to 2025), and three as minority whip (from 2005 to 2007, from 2015 to 2021, and since 2025). He became the oldest serving Democratic senator upon the death of Dianne Feinstein in 2023. As of 2024, Durbin is the longest-serving Senate party whip in U.S. history.
Durbin chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee from 2021 to 2025. He also led the Ketanji Brown Jackson Supreme Court nomination hearings and is the dean of Illinois's congressional delegation. On April 23, 2025, he announced that he would not seek reelection in 2026.
Richard Joseph Durbin was born in East St. Louis, Illinois on November 21, 1944, to an Irish-American father, William Durbin, and a Lithuanian-born mother, Anna (née Kutkin; Lithuanian: Ona Kutkaitė). He graduated from Assumption High School in East St. Louis in 1962. During his high school years he worked at a meatpacking plant. He earned a B.S. from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in 1966. Durbin interned in Senator Paul Douglas's office during his senior year in college, and worked on Douglas's unsuccessful 1966 reelection campaign. Durbin adopted the nickname "Dick", which he had not previously used, after Douglas called him by that name.
Durbin earned his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in 1969 and was admitted to the Illinois bar later that year.
After graduating from law school, Durbin started a law practice in Springfield. He was legal counsel to Lieutenant Governor Paul Simon from 1969 to 1972, and then legal counsel to the Illinois State Senate Judiciary Committee from 1972 to 1982. Durbin was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for the Illinois State Senate in 1976. From 1976 to 1981 he co-owned the Crow's Mill Pub in Springfield's Toronto neighborhood, which he later called a "crash course" in running a business. He ran for lieutenant governor in 1978 as the running mate of Illinois Comptroller Michael Bakalis. They were defeated by Republican incumbents James R. Thompson and Dave O'Neal. Durbin then worked for five years as an adjunct professor of medical law at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine while maintaining his law practice.
U.S. House of Representatives (1983–1997)
In 1982, Durbin won the Democratic nomination for the 20th congressional district, which included Decatur and most of Springfield. He scored a 1,400-vote victory, defeating 22-year incumbent Republican Paul Findley, a U.S. Navy veteran, whose district lines had been substantially redrawn to remove rural farms and add economically depressed Decatur. This replaced 35% of the voters in Findley's old district and included more Democrats as part of the decennial redistricting. Durbin's campaign emphasized unemployment and financial difficulties facing farmers, and told voters that electing him would send "a message to Washington and to President Reagan that our economic policies are not working." Durbin also benefited from donations by pro-Israel groups, especially AIPAC, that opposed Findley's advocacy on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organization. In the years before the 1996 Senate election Durbin was reelected to the House six times, rarely facing substantial opposition and winning more than 55% of the vote in each election except 1994.
In 1996, Durbin defeated Pat Quinn to become the Democratic nominee to replace the retiring Senator Paul Simon, a longtime friend. He faced Republican State Representative Al Salvi in the general election. Although the election had been expected to be competitive, Durbin benefited from Bill Clinton's 18-point win in Illinois that year and defeated Salvi by 15 points. He was reelected in 2002, 2008, 2014, and 2020, each time by at least 10 points.
119th United States Congress Committee assignments
Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
Committee on the Judiciary (Ranking Member)
Bi-Cameral High-Speed & Intercity Passenger Rail Caucus
Caucus on International Narcotics Control (co-chair)
International Conservation Caucus
Senate Hunger Caucus (co-chair)
Senate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Education Caucus (co-chair)