Durbin was born in East St. Louis, Illinois, to an Irish-American father, William Durbin, and a Lithuanian-born mother, Ann Kutkin (Lithuanian: Ona Kutkaitė).
Richard Joseph “Dick” Durbin (born November 21, 1944) is the senior United States Senator from Illinois and the Senate Majority Whip, the second highest position in the Democratic Party leadership in the Senate. In 1996, he won election to the U.S. Senate by an unexpected 15-point margin, and still remains as the U.S. Senior Senator from Illinois.