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Dick Durbin
Dick Durbin 2022 official portrait (cropped).jpg
Official portrait, 2022
Senate Majority Whip
Assumed office
January 20, 2021
Leader Chuck Schumer
Preceded by John Thune
In office
January 3, 2007 – January 3, 2015
Leader Harry Reid
Preceded by Mitch McConnell
Succeeded by John Cornyn
Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee
Assumed office
February 3, 2021
Preceded by Lindsey Graham
Senate Minority Whip
In office
January 3, 2015 – January 20, 2021
Leader Harry Reid
Chuck Schumer
Preceded by John Cornyn
Succeeded by John Thune
In office
January 3, 2005 – January 3, 2007
Leader Harry Reid
Preceded by Harry Reid
Succeeded by Trent Lott
United States Senator
from Illinois
Assumed office
January 3, 1997
Serving with Tammy Duckworth
Preceded by Paul Simon
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Illinois's 20th district
In office
January 3, 1983 – January 3, 1997
Preceded by Paul Findley
Succeeded by John Shimkus
Personal details
Born
Richard Joseph Durbin

(1944-11-21) November 21, 1944 (age 79)
East St. Louis, Illinois, U.S.
Political party Democratic
Spouse
Loretta Schaefer
(m. 1967)
Children 3
Residences Springfield, Illinois, U.S.
Education Georgetown University (BS, JD)
Occupation
  • Politician
  • lawyer
Signature

Richard Joseph Durbin (born November 21, 1944) is an American lawyer and politician 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 as the Senate Democratic whip since 2005 (the second-highest position in the Democratic leadership in the Senate) and as the Senate majority whip since 2021. He chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, and led the Ketanji Brown Jackson Supreme Court nomination hearings.

Durbin was born in East St. Louis, Illinois. He graduated from the School of Foreign Service and the Georgetown University Law Center. Working in state legal counsel throughout the 1970s, he made an unsuccessful run for lieutenant governor of Illinois in 1978. He 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 stints as Senate majority whip (from 2007 to 2015, and since 2021), and two as minority whip (from 2005 to 2007 and from 2015 to 2021). As of 2024, Durbin is the longest-serving Senate party whip in U.S. history. He is the dean of Illinois's congressional delegation.

Early life, education and career

Durbin was born in East St. Louis, Illinois, 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 did not previously use, after Douglas mistakenly 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 described as a "crash course" in running a business. He ran for lieutenant governor in 1978 as the running mate of State Superintendent of Schools Michael Bakalis. They were defeated by Republican incumbents Jim Thompson and Dave O'Neal. Durbin then worked as an adjunct professor of medical law at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine for five years while maintaining his law practice.

U.S. House of Representatives

In 1982, Durbin won the Democratic nomination for the 20th congressional district, which included Macon and most of Springfield. He scored a 1,400-vote victory, defeating 22-year incumbent Paul Findley, a U.S. Navy veteran, whose district lines had been substantially redrawn to remove rural farms and add economically depressed Macon. This replaced 35% of the voters 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 benefited from donations by pro-Israel groups, especially AIPAC, that opposed Findley's advocacy on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organization in the year before the election. Durbin was reelected six times, rarely facing substantial opposition, and winning more than 55% of the vote in each election except 1994.

U.S. Senate

Richard Durbin official photo
Durbin during the 108th Congress
Dick Durbin DNC 2008
Durbin speaks during the final night of the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, introducing his party's nominee, fellow Illinoisan Barack Obama

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.

Committee assignments

Durbin's committee assignments for the 118th Congress are as follows:

  • Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
    • Subcommittee on Commodities, Risk Management, and Trade
    • Subcommittee on Rural Development and Energy
    • Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, Poultry, Local Food Systems, and Food Safety and Security
  • Committee on Appropriations
    • Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development
    • Subcommittee on Defense
    • Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government
    • Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies
    • Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs
    • Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies
  • Committee on the Judiciary (Chair)
    • As Chair, Durbin is an ex officio member of all subcommittees.

Caucus memberships

  • Bi-Cameral High-Speed & Intercity Passenger Rail Caucus
  • Caucus on International Narcotics Control (co-chair)
  • International Conservation Caucus
  • Senate Diabetes Caucus
  • Senate Hunger Caucus (co-chair)
  • Senate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Education Caucus (co-chair)
  • Sportsmen's Caucus
  • Congressional COPD Caucus (co-chair)
  • Senate Ukraine Caucus (co-chair)
  • Afterschool Caucuses
  • Congressional NextGen 9-1-1 Caucus

Leadership

Obama,Biden,Richard Durbin and Steny,Hoyer
Durbin eating lunch with President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.

In November 1998, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle appointed Durbin Assistant Democratic Whip. After the 2004 election, Durbin became the Democratic Whip in the 109th Congress. He became the first senator from Illinois to serve as a Senate Whip since Everett Dirksen in the late 1950s, and the fifth to serve in Senate leadership. Durbin served as assistant minority leader from 2005 to 2007, when the Democrats became the majority party in the Senate. He then assumed the role of assistant majority leader, or majority whip.

In addition to his caucus duties, Durbin chairs the Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government.

In 2000, Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore reportedly considered asking Durbin to be his running mate for Vice President of the United States. Gore ultimately chose Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman.

When Majority Leader Harry Reid faced a difficult reelection fight in 2010, some pundits predicted a possibly heated fight to succeed him between Durbin and Senator Chuck Schumer, who is well known for his fund-raising prowess. Reid's reelection rendered such speculation moot. In 2021, Durbin became Senate Majority Whip again for the 117th Congress, as well as becoming chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. This is the first time that the whip of either party has served as chair of this committee.

Political positions

Durbin, Menendez and Interim President Guaidó
Durbin and Bob Menendez with Venezuela's interim President Juan Guaidó in February 2020

In 2006, the National Journal rated Durbin as the most liberal U.S. senator. According to the 2019 Govtrack report card, he had the tenth-most left-leaning voting record in the Senate.

Gun control

Durbin supports a national assault weapon ban.

He has repeatedly called for expanded gun control laws.

Immigration

Durbin is the chief proponent of the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act. The bill would provide certain students who entered or were brought to the nation illegally with the opportunity to earn conditional permanent residency if they arrived in the U.S. as children; graduated from a U.S. high school; have been in the country continuously for at least five years before the bill's enactment; submit biometric data; pass a criminal background check; and complete two years toward a four-year degree from an accredited university or complete at least two years in the military within a five-year period. In 2013, the Immigrant Legal Resource Center presented Durbin with the inaugural Nancy Pelosi Award for Immigration & Civil Rights Policy for his leadership on this issue.

On January 28, 2013, Durbin was a member of a bipartisan group of eight senators, the Gang of Eight, which announced principles for comprehensive immigration reform (CIR).

In October 2019, Durbin blocked the passage of S.386, the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act, which aims to eliminate the per-country numerical limitation for all employment-based immigrants and to increase the per-country limitation for all family-sponsored immigrants from 7% to 15%. He was one of the original co-sponsors of a similar bill, in the 112th Congress (2011–2012). The only difference between the two versions is that S.1983 had the language "includes nationals of Ireland coming to the United States under a treaty of commerce to perform specialty occupation services" in the nonimmigrant E-3 visa category.

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Vice President Harris Hold a Press Conference
Durbin speaks at a press conference in El Paso, TX with U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, along with Vice President Kamala Harris and Representative Veronica Escobar.

Durbin argued that bill S.386 would prioritize people of Indian and Chinese origin, who have been in the green card backlog for years, at the expense of future immigrants from other countries. After blocking S.386, he proposed his own bill, which would almost triple the number of employment-based green cards and eliminate country caps. Durbin agreed that his bill would not pass in the current administration.

Child care

Dick Durbin and Raj Date
Durbin meeting with Raj Date, then acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to discuss helping consumers compare bank fees

In 2019, Durbin and 34 other senators introduced the Child Care for Working Families Act. The bill was expected to create 770,000 new child care jobs and ensure families under 75% of the state median income would not pay for child care, with higher-earning families having to pay "their fair share for care on a sliding scale, regardless of the number of children they have." The legislation also supported universal access to high-quality preschool programs for all three- and four-year-olds. Additionally, it would have changed child care compensation and training to aid both teachers and caregivers. The bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, where it did not receive a hearing or vote.

Environment

Among Durbin's legislative causes are environmental protection, particularly the protection of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The League of Conservation Voters gives him a rating of 89%. Sierra Club gives him a 90% rating.

Transportation

Durbin has been a major proponent of expanded Amtrak funding and support.

Personal life

Durbin and his wife Loretta have had three children, Christine, Jennifer and Paul. After several weeks in the hospital with complications due to a congenital heart condition, Christine died on November 1, 2008, at age 40.

Film and television appearances

Film
Year Title Role Notes
2010 Pricele$$ Himself Documentary
2015 The Gettysburg Address Himself Documentary
2022 Loan Wolves Himself Documentary

See also

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