Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) announced on Monday night that he was throwing his hat in the ring to fill Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) leadership position on the Senate Judiciary Committee next year.
“I intend to seek the top Democratic position on the Judiciary Committee in the 117th Congress,” Durbin said in a statement. “I have served on the Committee for 22 years, and I am its most senior member who does not currently serve atop another Senate Committee.”
“We have to roll up our sleeves and get to work on undoing the damage of the last four years and protecting fundamental civil and human rights,” he added.
The Democrat’s announcement came several hours after Feinstein revealed that she would step down as the committee’s ranking member next year, though she plans to stay on the committee.
The California senator was widely criticized by liberals last month over her chummy attitude during the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice nominee Amy Coney Barrett, which saw the ranking member hug Judiciary Committee Chair Lindsey Graham while declaring that the proceedings were “one of the best set of hearings that I’ve participated in.”
