Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, won't seek
reelection to a sixth term in 2026
[April 24, 2025]
By MARY CLARE JALONICK and JOHN O'CONNOR
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois said Wednesday he will
not seek reelection in 2026, ending his more than four-decade career
representing Illinois and accelerating a generational shift in Senate
Democratic leadership where he has long held the No. 2 position.
Durbin, 80, is in his fifth Senate term and was first elected to the
House in 1982. His decision not to run will set off a scramble for his
Senate seat in solidly Democratic Illinois and for his leadership
position in Washington as many in the party agitate for a new and more
aggressive approach to confronting Republican President Donald Trump in
his second term.
“The decision of whether to run has not been easy," Durbin said in a
video posted to X. “I truly love the job of being a United States
senator. But in my heart I know it’s time to pass the torch.”
Durbin served seven terms in the House before succeeding his mentor,
Paul Simon, in the Senate in 1996. Durbin has been the No. 2 Senate
Democrat since 2005. From that post, he helped shape the career of an
up-and-comer from Illinois, Barack Obama, who was only four years into
his first term in the Senate when he was elected president. Obama said
in a post on X after Durbin's announcement that “I would not have been a
United States Senator – and certainly would not have been President –
had it not been for Dick’s support.”
As the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee during Democratic
President Joe Biden's term, Durbin led the confirmation of Supreme Court
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson in 2022. He also organized the Democrats'
pushback when Trump and Senate Republicans pushed through the
confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett in late 2020.
Durbin is part of a Senate leadership team that has been in place for
almost two decades, alongside the current Senate Democratic leader, New
York's Chuck Schumer, 74, and the late Majority Leader Harry Reid of
Nevada, who retired in 2017 and died in 2021. The race for Durbin's No.
2 spot is likely to be seen as an early test for who could eventually
replace Schumer as younger members of the caucus have eyed a new
generation of leaders.
Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz, one of the Democrats who is considered a
possible contender for the second-ranking job, put out a statement
within minutes of Durbin's announcement saying that Durbin has been “a
pillar of leadership, integrity, and unwavering dedication to the people
of his home state of Illinois and the nation.”
Among Durbin’s more significant legislative achievements, he is largely
credited with putting in motion the movement to ban indoor smoking.
Having watched his 53-year-old father die of lung cancer when he was 14,
Durbin won approval of legislation he sponsored in 1987 prohibiting
smoking on short commercial flights and expanded it to nearly all
domestic flights two years later.
“People started asking, ‘If secondhand smoke wasn’t safe on airplanes —
why is it safe in public buildings, schools, hospitals or restaurants?’
The answer is simple: It’s not,” Durbin said on the 25th anniversary of
the law.
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Senate Judiciary Oversight Committee Chair Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.,
speaks during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 13,
2023. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
In the early 2000s, he introduced the DREAM Act, which would give
immigrants in the U.S. illegally who grew up in the country a
pathway toward U.S. citizenship.
It has never become law, but in 2010, Durbin and Sen. Richard Lugar,
R-Ind., wrote Obama asking him to stop deporting so-called Dreamers.
Obama responded with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA,
which has covered about 830,000 immigrants, according to Durbin’s
office.
Durbin was also instrumental in reversing a war on drugs-era law
that penalized crack cocaine in a 100-to-1 ratio to powder cocaine,
a law that disproportionately hit Black defendants with long prison
terms. The new law was made retroactive, reducing the sentences for
those serving time for crack.
With Republican and Democratic co-sponsors, Durbin pushed the First
Step Act, which Trump signed into law in 2018. The criminal justice
system revamp aimed to make sentencing laws fairer and provide
programs to help people who are incarcerated transition in returning
to society.
Richard Durbin was born in 1944 in East St. Louis. In 1966, after
graduating from Georgetown University, he interned for Sen. Paul
Douglas, whose seat he now holds. It was Douglas, who lost election
to a fourth term in 1966, who once mistakenly called him “Dick,” a
nickname Durbin adopted.
Durbin earned a law degree from Georgetown and worked as legal
counsel for Simon, who was lieutenant governor in the late 1960s and
early 1970s, and then for the Legislature through the 1970s. In
1978, Durbin made an unsuccessful run for lieutenant governor, after
which he maintained a private legal practice and co-owned a
Springfield tavern.
A redrawn district, an economic recession and funding from
pro-Israel forces were factors when in 1982 Durbin ousted Paul
Findley, an 11-term Republican congressman who was best known for
his criticism of American policy toward Israel and support of
Palestinians.
In 2000, Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore considered Durbin
for the vice presidency, before chose Sen. Joseph Lieberman of
Connecticut. But a few years later, Durbin influenced another
presidential candidate when he served as a sounding board for and
adviser to Obama.
___
O'Connor reported from Springfield, Illinois.
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