Richard J. Durbin
Democrat · IL · U.S. Senate
Bio
Richard Joseph Durbin 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 and since 2025 as the Senate minority whip. He is the longest-serving Democratic whip since the position was established in 1913.
Full bio on Wikipedia →Record of service
- In office
- 43.6 years
- Chambers
- House 14y, Senate 29.6y
- First took office
- 1983 (12 terms)
- Seniority
- 5 of 100 by time served
- Age
- 81
- Senate class
- 2 · senior senator
- Senate Minority Whip · 2005–2007
- Senate Majority Whip · 2007–2015
- Senate Minority Whip · 2015–2021
- Senate Majority Whip · 2021–2025
- Senate Minority Whip · 2025–present
- Carbondale, IL · 618-351-1122
- Chicago, IL · 312-353-4952
- Rock Island, IL · 309-786-5173
- Springfield, IL · 217-492-4062
Service history, offices and identifiers from unitedstates/congress-legislators (public domain). Years served sum each term rather than subtracting the first start date, so a break in service is not counted as time in office.
Overall lean (DW-NOMINATE)
Issue profile
Each issue runs left ↔ right, scored from how the member voted on bills tagged to that issue (−1…+1). Issues with too few votes are blank. Overall lean uses DW-NOMINATE.
How they score against the parties
Richard J. Durbin's voting record compared with each party's national platform, issue by issue — the same similarity score used across the site.
On the political map
Richard J. Durbin (the large ringed dot) among every current member of Congress and the party platforms.
Each small dot is a current member (Dem · Rep); the larger dots are party platforms — click one for its closest members. Economic axis: taxes, healthcare, labor, energy. Social axis: abortion, guns, immigration, civil rights, crime.
Do you vote like Durbin?
Answer a few questions on the issues and see which members of Congress — and which party — actually line up with you.
Caucuses & committees
Where Durbinsits in Congress's own organization — each group's lean is computed from its members' voting records. Explore them all on the caucuses and committees pages.
Committees
- Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestrycenter · 23 members
- Senate Committee on Appropriationscenter · 29 members
Most and least aligned members
Treating Durbin's 14 issue scores as a vector, cosine similarity measures whether two voting records point the same way (+100%) or in opposite directions (−100%) — the colleagues whose records align most and least with theirs.
Recent notable votes
Latest news
Todd Blanche Backtracks After Promising to Meet Epstein SurvivorsActing Attorney General Todd Blanche tried to claim at his Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday that he was committed to meeting with Jeffrey Epstein’s victims, but quickly backtracked. “When it comes to the victims of this horrible man, we will never, never…
The New Republic · July 15, 2026
The Party of AOC or AIPAC? In Illinois, Neither Bloc Could DominateThe primaries in deep blue Illinois on Tuesday were a test of who has power and influence in the Democratic Party. In three primaries for open U.S. House seats in the Chicago area and the seat of the retiring Senator Richard Durbin, it was the party’s progres…
The New Republic · March 18, 2026
Immigrant rights advocate Mercy Sister JoAnn Persch, 91, diesSister of Mercy JoAnn Persch, a longtime immigrant rights advocate, died on Nov. 14, 2025, at age 91. / Credit: Kathleen Murphy/CNA Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 19, 2025 / 17:48 pm (CNA). Longtime immigrant rights advocate Sister JoAnn Persch died on Nov. …
Catholicnewsagency.com · November 19, 2025- If You Think Leo’s Defense of Cupich and Durbin is Bad, Wait Until You Hear About Vatican II!
If You Think Leo’s Defense of Cupich and Durbin is Bad, Wait Until You Hear About Vatican II!Many of us would have applauded a statement from Pope Leo to the effect that neither Cupich nor Durbin are actually Catholic, coupled with a firm defense of Catholic …
Freerepublic.com · October 4, 2025
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