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Fact check: Who are the Senators representing Illinois in the US Senate as of 2025?

Checked on November 1, 2025

Executive Summary

As of 2025, the two U.S. Senators representing Illinois are Senator Tammy Duckworth (D) and Senator Dick Durbin (D); multiple state and national rosters list both as incumbent senators [1] [2]. Durbin has publicly announced he will not seek re-election in 2026, signaling an upcoming Senate contest for his seat [3].

1. Why the short answer is unequivocal — official rosters agree

Every current roster and historical list consulted identifies Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin as Illinois’s two U.S. senators in 2025. State and federal directories and compilations of sitting senators show identical pairings, listing contact details, party affiliations, and term information that match one another [1] [4] [5]. These records are maintained to reflect current officeholders, and the entries for Duckworth and Durbin are contemporaneous in 2025 documents, leaving no ambiguity about who holds the two Senate seats now. Cross-referencing multiple registries reduces the risk of stale or mistaken entries, and every authoritative list consulted in this review was concordant.

2. Who these senators are and how long they’ve served

Senator Dick Durbin is a long-serving member of the Senate with seniority and leadership experience; Senator Tammy Duckworth is a mid-career senator with a high public profile on veterans’ and defense issues. Public listings and biographical rosters summarize their party affiliation as Democratic and provide term dates that confirm incumbency through 2025 [4] [5]. Biographical summaries in official and archival lists present a consistent timeline for both senators, which corroborates claims about their current status. Those timelines also explain why the political dynamics in Illinois—party control, committee assignments, and constituent outreach—reflect Democratic representation at the Senate level.

3. Recent developments that matter for Illinois’ Senate lineup

Durbin’s announcement that he will not seek re-election in 2026 is the key near-term change reported in 2025; this does not remove him from office for the remainder of his current term but does create a forthcoming open-seat race [3]. News coverage and official statements in April 2025 document Durbin’s retirement plans and the political reactions that followed, signaling both immediate continuity in representation and a forthcoming period of candidate jockeying. An announced retirement changes the political calculus without altering the fact of current incumbency, so Duckworth and Durbin remain Illinois’s senators in 2025 even as Durbin sets a path to vacate one seat at the end of his term.

4. How other reports reinforce the fact and show activity in office

Local and national reporting through 2025 continues to treat Duckworth and Durbin as the state’s Senate delegation, citing them in coverage of federal responses to Illinois matters such as immigration enforcement and Department of Homeland Security actions [6] [7]. These stories show both senators actively engaging with federal agencies and constituents, which is consistent with their roles as sitting senators rather than former officeholders. Active engagement in high-profile federal issues is practical confirmation of incumbency, not merely a clerical record, because reporters and officials interact with the actual officeholders named in the registries.

5. What to watch next — verification and succession dynamics

With Durbin’s retirement announcement in 2025, the principal upcoming change to confirm is the result of the 2026 election for his seat; until that election and any possible interim appointments, Duckworth and Durbin will continue to be Illinois’s senators [3]. For the most accurate updates, consult official Senate or state election websites around key dates: candidate filing windows, primary elections, and the general election in 2026. Multiple independent lists and archival pages already agree on the current status in 2025, and tracking the 2026 cycle will show when and if that composition changes. Monitoring both official sources and major news outlets will provide timely confirmation of any transition.

Want to dive deeper?
Who is Dick Durbin and what is his tenure in the U.S. Senate?
What is Senator Tammy Duckworth's background and committee assignments?
Which Illinois Senate seat elections occurred most recently and when (2020 2024)?
Have there been any special appointments or resignations affecting Illinois senators in 2023 2024 2025?
How do Illinois senators vote on major 2025 federal issues?