Math Education Caucus (co-chair) Sportsmen's Caucus Congressional COPD Caucus (co-chair) Senate Ukraine Caucus (co-chair) Afterschool Caucuses Congressional NextGen 9-1-1 Caucus Leadership In November 1998, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle appointed Durbin Assistant Democratic Whip. After the 2004 election, Durbin became the Democratic Whip in the 109th Congress. He became the first senator from Illinois to serve as a Senate Whip since Everett Dirksen in the late 1950s, and the fifth to serve in Senate leadership. Durbin served as assistant minority leader from 2005 to 2007, when the Democrats became the majority party in the Senate. He then assumed the role of assistant majority leader, or majority whip. In addition to his caucus duties, Durbin chairs the Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government. In 2000, Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore reportedly considered asking Durbin to be his running mate for Vice President of the United States. Gore ultimately chose Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman. When Majority Leader Harry Reid faced a difficult reelection fight in 2010, some pundits predicted a possibly heated fight to succeed him between Durbin and Senator Chuck Schumer, who is well known for his fund-raising prowess. Reid's reelection rendered such speculation moot. In 2021, Durbin became Senate Majority Whip again for the 117th Congress, as well as becoming chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. This is the first time that the whip of either party has served as chair of this committee. Political positions In 2006, the National Journal rated Durbin as the most liberal U.S. senator. According to the 2019 Govtrack report card, he had the tenth-most left-leaning voting record in the Senate. In 2019, Durbin co-signed a Senate resolution affirming support of a Two-State Solution and opposition to a proposed Israeli annexation of the West Bank. The American Conservative Union gave him a 5% lifetime conservative rating in 2020. Social issues Abortion During his first term as congressman, Durbin supported upholding existing restrictions on abortion or impose new limitations, including supporting a Constitutional amendment that would have nullified Roe v. Wade. Beginning in his second Senate term, he reversed his position and has since voted to maintain access to abortion, including support for Medicaid funding of it, and opposed any limitation he considers a practical or potential encroachment upon Roe. Durbin has maintained that this reversal came about due to personal reflection and his growing awareness of potentially harmful