A decision which Illinois U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin had said was coming “soon” became real on Wednesday, when the East St. Louis native announced he would not run for re-election in 2026.
Durbin, 80, broke the news in a social media video.
The decision will mean the end of a more than four-decade career representing Illinois after five terms in the Senate, and a career in the U.S. House that began in 1983.
It 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.
“It is only because of Dick’s empathy, patience, support and mentorship that I am in the United States Senate today. It has been the honor of a lifetime to get to work alongside a leader who embodies what it means to be a true public servant,” said fellow Illinois U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth. “Someone who has never, ever stopped speaking out for those who far too often feel voiceless. Someone who has never, ever stopped fighting to hold the special interests in our country accountable. Someone who has never, ever stopped caring enough about our nation to do the hard, grueling work necessary to make her a little more fair, a little more just—one day, one bill, one constituent at a time.”
Durbin 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.
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.
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’s never become law, but in 2010, Durbin and Sen. Richard Lugar, an Indiana Republican, 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 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.
And with Republican and Democratic co-sponsors, Durbin pushed the First Step Act, which President Donald 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.
Durbin's decision is just one facing a high-profile Illinois Democrat. Gov. JB Pritzker, a potential 2028 contender for the White House also has to decide whether to seek a new term as the state's chief executive. Pritzker was among those praising Durbin Wednesday.
“The people of Illinois should take great pride having a leader like Dick Durbin represent us in the U.S. Senate. I have been proud to be his partner and am even more proud to call him my friend. He will leave some extraordinary shoes to fill – and has given us all an example of courage and righteousness for the work ahead. No doubt we will all celebrate him during his final 20 months in office," Pritzker said.
