Illinois U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, a former Senate colleague of both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, takes the United Center stage between 6:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. Monday on the opening night of the Democratic National Convention amid questions about his own political future.
Durbin, 79, the state’s senior senator and the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, has yet to say whether he’ll seek a sixth term in 2026, leaving a host of Illinois officials in limbo as they plot their own next moves.
A former congressman from Springfield who was first elected to the Senate the last time the DNC came to Chicago in 1996, Durbin now chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, a perch from which he’s helped advance many of Biden’s nominees to the federal court. But the post also has exposed Durbin to criticism from the left for not doing more about alleged ethics violations among members of the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority.
When Biden dropped out of the presidential race and backed Harris last month, Durbin waited until after Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker endorsed the vice president before offering his support.
Two years ago, Durbin lost a proxy battle to Pritzker over control of the state Democratic Party. Durbin backed U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly of Matteson for the job, which she briefly held before being ousted in favor of a Pritzker-backed chair, state Rep. Elizabeth “Lisa” Hernandez of Cicero.
Durbin and Pritzker were both among the Illinois delegation that welcomed Biden to Chicago on Monday afternoon, when Marine One landed at Soldier Field ahead of Biden’s keynote speech on the convention’s opening night.