Richard J. Durbin headshot
At a Glance
Seat
U.S. Senator from Illinois
Born
November 21, 1944
Age 81
Phone
(202) 224-2152
Office
711 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510, Washington 20515
Congress Member Profile|U.S. Senator|Democrat|Illinois

Richard J. Durbin

Richard Joseph Durbin is an American politician and attorney serving as the senior United States senator from the state of 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 and since 2025 as the Senate minority whip. He is the longest-serving Democratic whip since the position was established in 1913. Durbin chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee from 2021 to 2025, and led the Ketanji Brown Jackson Supreme Court nomination hearings.

Source: WikipediaView full (CC BY-SA)
Voting Record — 851
Yes35%
No62%
Present0%
Not Voting3%
Party align93%
Cross-party6%
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District Map

Senate District (Statewide)

U.S. Census Bureau boundary data.
Richard J. Durbin headshot
Richard J. Durbin
U.S. SenatorDemocratIllinois
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Richard J.'s ATmosphere Activity
20 recent posts · 129 sponsored · 355 cosponsored
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Recent ATmosphere posts, sponsorships, and cosponsorships.

Trump’s alliance with Big Tobacco is exposing another generation of kids to nicotine addiction, sickness, and early death. Read my op-ed in STAT below about how Big Tobacco used their money and influence to push the President to abandon children’s health.
I am very pleased that Ricardo has been released from ICE detention & is reunited with his mother. But he should never have been taken from his family in the first place. We must end the Trump Administration’s mass deportation operation & stop these cruel attacks on immigrants & our communities.
Journalist Sonia Dahmani’s conditional release was modest but welcome progress. Yet legal harassment continues, including yesterday’s sentence on nonsense charges, raising further concerns about basic freedoms in Tunisia under President Saied. Political charges against her & others must be dropped.
Just one week after tobacco giant Reynolds donated $5 million to MAGA Inc. and dined with Trump at his golf club, President Trump directed FDA to authorize the sale of flavored vapes. This corruption is poisoning our kids and unleashing a new wave of addiction on America.
Happy Memorial Day. Today, we recognize the men and women in uniform who lost their lives in service of our country. My deepest thanks goes to these brave service members who made the ultimate sacrifice.
I joined Senator Grassley to demand Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth immediately release stalled funding for Ukraine and the Baltics. These nations are facing the brunt of Russian aggression, and our failure to stand by them will only embolden Putin and his war machine.
I led all Illinois Congressional Democrats in a letter urging Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to approve Illinois’ Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program Final Proposal. Farmers, schools, and businesses in Illinois are depending on these funds, and they shouldn’t have to wait any longer.
I asked leading scientists at the National Institutes of Health to answer a simple question: is it good for our kids for the Trump Administration to unleash new, flavored vaping products on the market? All of them answered no.
Today, Republicans left town without funding Trump’s mass deportations, billionaire ballroom, or his January 6 slush fund. We will remain ready to challenge these horrendous wastes of taxpayer dollars when they return.
I joined @hirono.senate.gov to call on the Education Department to strengthen oversight of predatory for-profit college programs that leave students with mountains of debt and degrees with little economic value. We must do more to protect our students.
Threats don’t respect international borders. The Trump Administration’s sweeping and self destructive foreign aid cuts have left the Democratic Republic of Congo and the U.S. struggling to contain an Ebola outbreak. An utterly predictable result from the chaos of DOGE.
The Trump-Blanche Justice Department announced last month it’s bringing back firing squads last month. A total step backwards. I just introduced a bill to ban the federal death penalty once and for all.
Violence and trauma touches all too many Americans. Today, I joined Alliance for HOPE to discuss federal initiatives that give survivors and their families the tools they need to heal and rebuild their lives.
I welcome the change in Guatemala’s attorney general, and I hope that under new leadership, the Guatemalan government will finally drops any remaining charges against anti-corruption journalist José Rubén Zamora and anti-corruption prosecutor Virginia Laparra.
The death penalty isn’t reserved for the worst of the worst. It’s only reserved for the poorest of the poor. It’s time to end the federal death penalty once and for all. I just introduced a bill to BAN it.
Russia, under the bloody leadership of Vladimir Putin, has committed terrible wartime atrocities—one of the most horrific being the kidnapping of thousands of Ukrainian children. Lantratova’s appointment is a cynical slap in the face to Ukraine.
I was honored to receive an award from Every 100th Heart for working to support patients with congenital heart conditions. Every 15 minutes in America, a baby is born with a heart defect. I have been proud to secure $82 million for the CDC’s research to better understand & treat these conditions.
Americans are facing rising housing, utility, grocery, and health care prices. What are Congressional Republicans focused on this week? Funding President Trump’s billion-dollar ballroom.
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Voting History
851 total votes
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Recent roll calls with party-majority context so it is easier to scan how this member tends to vote.

DateBillQuestionPositionParty MajAlign?Result
2025-01-09S. 5 (119th)End filibuster to begin debateYESYESCloture on the Motion to Proceed Agreed to (84-9, 3/5 majority required)

Alignment stats consider only votes where a clear yes/no majority existed for the legislator's party. Cross-party marks divergence where the vote matched the opposite party majority. ↔ indicates cross-party divergence.

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