RightDataUSA


Richard Durbin

[Congressional biography]

Born: November 21, 1944 in East St. Louis, IL

Education:

  • Georgetown University, B.S., 1966, J.D., 1969

Career:

  • Intern to Sen. Paul Douglas, 1966
  • Lawyer
  • Staff, IL Lt. Governor Paul Simon, 1969-1972
  • Counsel to IL Senate Judiciary Committee, 1972-1982
  • Associate professor, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, 1978-1982

Elected Office:

  • Candidate for Il Lt. Governor, 1978


Election Results for Richard Durbin


Click on the Year to see the results of that election.

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1978 33 IL D Lt. Governor Primary 1 528,819 100.0%
1978 33 IL D Lt. Governor General 2 0 0.0%
1982 37 IL D U.S. House District 20 Primary 1 33,956 75.3%
1982 37 IL D U.S. House District 20 General 1 100,758 50.4%
1984 39 IL D U.S. House District 20 Primary 1 53,588 92.5%
1984 39 IL D U.S. House District 20 General 1 145,092 61.3%
1986 41 IL D U.S. House District 20 General 1 126,556 68.1%
1988 43 IL D U.S. House District 20 General 1 153,341 68.9%
1990 45 IL D U.S. House District 20 General 1 130,114 66.2%
1992 47 IL D U.S. House District 20 General 1 154,869 56.5%
1994 49 IL D U.S. House District 20 Primary 1 46,248 100.0%
1994 49 IL D U.S. House District 20 General 1 108,034 54.8%
1996 51 IL D U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 512,520 64.9%
1996 51 IL D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 2,384,028 56.1%
2002 57 IL D U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 918,467 100.0%
2002 57 IL D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 2,103,766 60.3%
2008 63 IL D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 3,615,844 67.8%
2014 69 IL D U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 429,041 100.0%
2014 69 IL D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 1,929,637 53.5%
2020 75 IL D U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 1,446,118 100.0%
2020 75 IL D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 3,278,930 54.9%


Age: Age as of July 1 of the year pertaining to this election.



Ideology Data for Richard Durbin


Click on the number in the 'Conserv.' column to see all of the key votes for that year.

YearAgeBodyConservative
Coalition		Party UnityPresidential
Support		Vote %LiberalConserv.
P
1983 38 House 31 69 77 17 R 13 85 95 85 14
1984 39 House 29 69 82 18 R 32 66 98 70 13
1985 40 House 20 78 79 19 R 28 73 98 65 21
1986 41 House 22 78 90 9 R 17 82 99 85 14
1987 42 House 19 77 91 5 R 13 84 97 92 4
1988 43 House 18 82 88 9 R 24 76 98 90 16
1989 44 House 12 88 95 4 R 24 76 99 95 4
1990 45 House 26 74 91 6 R 16 83 97 83 4
1991 46 House 30 70 92 6 R 25 73 98 95 5
1992 47 House 21 77 93 5 R 12 86 99 90 4
1993 48 House 34 66 93 6 D 77 22 99 90 13
1994 49 House 22 78 97 2 D 78 22 99 95 0
1995 50 House 23 77 91 7 D 83 17 98 89 8
1996 51 House 24 67 82 8 D 75 16 86 89 0
1997 52 Senate 12 88 96 3 D 92 8 99 100 4
1998 53 Senate 13 88 94 5 D 86 10 98 95 8
1999 54 Senate 95 5 96 4 D 87 13 100 100 4
2000 55 Senate 99 1 97 1 D 97 3 98 95 4
2001 56 Senate 94 5 R 59 39 99 95 0
2002 57 Senate 97 3 R 67 31 99 95 0
2003 58 Senate 97 3 R 43 51 98 95 10
2004 59 Senate 96 4 R 63 37 99 100 4
2005 60 Senate 97 1 R 36 64 99 100 0
2006 61 Senate 98 2 R 46 51 99 100 4
2007 62 Senate 98 2 R 33 64 99 95 0
2008 63 Senate 98 2 R 35 65 100 100 4
2009 64 Senate 99 0 D 97 0 99 95 0
2010 65 Senate 99 1 D 98 0 100 95 0
2011 66 Senate 97 2 D 93 3 98 95 0
2012 67 Senate 97 3 D 96 4 100 95 0
2013 68 Senate 99 1 D 100 0 100 95 4
2014 69 Senate 99 1 D 99 0 99 90 0
2015 70 Senate 97 2 D 89 11 99 100 0
2016 71 Senate 95 0 D 84 10 94 100 0
2017 72 Senate 93 4 R 37 61 98 95 0
2018 73 Senate 97 1 R 29 67 97 95 9
2019 74 Senate 93 6 R 41 57 99 100 0
2020 75 Senate 93 6 R 41 57 98 100 4
2021 76 Senate 99 0 D 95 5 100 100 5
2022 77 Senate 99 0 D 100 0 99 0
2023 78 Senate 88 1 D 87 0
2024 79 Senate 91 8 D 98
Lifetime conservative rating:   4%


Age: Age as of July 1 of the year pertaining to this row.


Conservative Coalition: According to the publication "Congressional Quarterly" (CQ), this is an alliance of Republicans and Southern Democrats (from back when Southern Democrats tended to be conservative or at least moderate) against Northern Democrats in Congress.

This concept had significant meaning perhaps through the 1980's. These statistics stopped being computed after 2000 because conservative Democrats no longer existed except in very rare cases. The number under the green check is the percentage of time this Representative or Senator voted with the coalition; the number under the red X is the percentage of the time he opposed the coalition. The numbers often do not add to 100% because of instances where no vote was cast.


Party Unity: According to CQ, a Party Unity vote in Congress is one in which the parties were split, with a majority of Democrats opposing a majority of Republicans.

The number under the green check is the percentage of time this Representative or Senator voted with his party; the number under the red X is the percentage of the time he opposed the party. The numbers often do not add to 100% because of instances where no vote was cast.


Presidential Support: These are votes for which the President has stated his position, either in via a message to Congress, by press conference remarks or other public statements and documents.

The number under the green check is the percentage of time this Representative or Senator voted with the President; the number under the red X is the percentage of the time he opposed the President. The numbers often do not add to 100% because of instances where no vote was cast. The "P" column indicates the party of the President in each year.


Vote %: The percentage of roll-call votes in which this Representaive or Senator participated by voting "Yes" or "No" (as opposed to "Present" or not voting at all.)


Liberal Rating: These ratings are based on key votes as identifed by the ultra-liberal advocacy organization called "Americans for Democratic Action" (ADA). They have been rating members of Congress since 1947. The number shown is the percentage of the time this Representative or Senator took the liberal position on a key issue. The methodology behind the calculation can be found here. Ratings followed by an asterisk were calculated the "ADA way" due to missing data regarding key votes in the ADA source material.


Conservative Rating: These ratings are based on key votes as identifed by the conservative advocacy organization called the "American Conservative Union" (ACU). They have been rating members of Congress since 1971. The number shown is the percentage of the time this Representative or Senator took the conservative position on a key issue.

The liberal and conservative ratings are not expected to add to 100% because the two groups use different sets of key votes to determine their ratings. Conservative ratings from 1961 through 1970 (and for 2024) were calculated based on key votes as selected by the creators of this website.