Dick Durbin

U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Richard Durbin and former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood will kick off a “Democracy Dialogues” series on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026, at 7 p.m. in Illinois State University’s Braden Auditorium at the Bone Student Center. This free, all-ages-welcome event is hosted by the McLean County Museum of History in collaboration with Illinois State University, WGLT, the Dirksen Congressional Center, and other community partners.

“The investigation into the death of an innocent person is not complete or credible unless we reach out and gather every single resource to understand what happened and understand the truth,” Sen. Dick Durbin said during a stop in Bloomington.

The U.S. House voted 222 to 209, mostly along party lines, to fund the government. President Trump signed the bill into law Wednesday night.

Illinois’ Dick Durbin was one of eight Democrats in the U.S. Senate to support a plan on Sunday night to reopen the federal government. The plan angered many top Illinois Democrats such as Gov. JB Pritzker and three candidates running to replace Durbin.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin says the Trump administration's troop deployments to Chicago threaten the Republic and the U.S. Constitution.

Sen. Dick Durbin on Wednesday urged his Republican colleagues to vote against defunding public media, citing WGLT’s election events as one example of how local stations serve their communities.

As the measure heads back to the House for approval, Democratic activists are now focusing their efforts on the three Republican members of the Illinois delegation, despite their allegiances to President Donald Trump.

Illinois’ political leaders are reacting to the U.S. military’s weekend strikes of three nuclear sites in Iran.

The National Institutes of Health under President Donald Trump announced this month that it was cutting payments covering overhead costs for research institutions that receive its grants. Schools like UIC and UC rely on the grants, and caps could create huge budget gaps.

Elected leaders in Illinois are mourning the death of former President Jimmy Carter and reflecting on the life of the humanitarian and Nobel Peace Prize winner.