The decision by Durbin, who is in his his fifth Senate term and is the chamber’s No. 2 Democrat, will set off a flurry of activity among a scrum of would-be successors, both Democratic and Republican. But in a state that has grown more solidly Democratic, the GOP has captured a Senate seat just twice for six-year terms since 1984.
“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, who’s 80, was first elected to the U.S. House in 1982 and served seven terms before succeeding his mentor, Paul Simon, in the Senate in 1996. From that post, he helped shape the career of an up-and-comer, Barack Obama, who was only four years into his first term in the Senate when he was elected president.
Durbin is the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and sits on the Appropriations and Agriculture committees. His caucus colleagues have chosen him as Democratic whip, the party’s No. 2 position, biennially since 2005.
He has been consistently liberal in Congress. Govtrack’s 2024 report card on Congress lists him as the Senate’s 14th most liberal member — right behind Illinois’ junior senator, Tammy Duckworth.
In the early 2000s, he introduced the DREAM Act, which would give people in the U.S. illegally who grew up in the country a pathway toward U.S. citizenship.
