Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, a former Senate colleague of both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, will take the stage at the United Center between 6:30 and 7 p.m. Monday night on the opening night of the Democratic National Convention amid questions about his own political future.
Durbin, 79, the state’s oldest senator and the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, has not said whether he will run for a sixth term in 2026, leaving many Illinois officials in limbo as they plan their next steps.
A former congressman from Springfield who was first elected to the Senate when the DNC last came to Chicago in 1996, Durbin now chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, a post from which he has helped shepherd many of Biden’s nominees to federal court. But the post has also exposed Durbin to criticism from the left for failing to do more to address alleged ethics violations among members of the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority.
When Biden withdrew from the presidential race last month and endorsed Harris, Durbin waited until Illinois Gov. J.B. 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 held briefly before being ousted in favor of a Pritzker-backed chairwoman, state Rep. Elizabeth “Lisa” Hernandez of Cicero.
Durbin and Pritzker were both part of the Illinois delegation that welcomed Biden to Chicago on Monday afternoon, when Marine One landed at Soldier Field ahead of Biden’s speech on the opening night of the convention.
