Illinois is a state in the Midwestern and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It has the fifth largest gross domestic product (GDP), the sixth largest population, and the 25th largest land area of all U.S. states. Illinois has been noted as a microcosm of the entire United States. With Chicago in northeastern Illinois, small industrial cities and immense agricultural productivity in the north and center of the state, and natural resources such as coal, timber, and petroleum in the south, Illinois has a diverse economic base, and is a major transportation hub. Chicagoland, Chicago's metropolitan area, encompasses over 65% of the state's population. The Port of Chicago connects the state to international ports via two main routes: from the Great Lakes, via the Saint Lawrence Seaway, to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River, via the Illinois Waterway to the Illinois River. The Mississippi River, the Ohio River, and the Wabash River form parts of the boundaries of Illinois. For decades, Chicago's O'Hare International Airport has been ranked as one of the world's busiest airports. Illinois has long had a reputation as a bellwether both in social and cultural terms and, through the 1980s, in politics.
The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country comprising 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the most populous city is New York City. Most of the country is located contiguously in North America between Canada and Mexico.
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress which, along with the United States House of Representatives—the lower chamber—comprises the legislature of the United States. The Senate chamber is located in the north wing of the Capitol Building, in Washington, D.C.
The Senate twice refused to seat Frank L. Smith, in December 1926 for an appointed term and in March 1927 for an elected one, due to corruption, but he is included in this list because Smith and the Governor considered him to be a senator for approximately two years.
Frank Leslie Smith was an Illinois politician.
Of the eight African Americans ever to sit in the U.S. Senate since Reconstruction, three have held Illinois's Class 3 seat, including Barack Obama who went on to become the President of the United States. This makes Illinois the state with the most African-American senators. Illinois's current U.S. Senators are Democrats Dick Durbin (serving since 1997) and Tammy Duckworth (serving since 2017).
Barack Hussein Obama II is an American attorney and politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American to be elected to the presidency. He previously served as a U.S. senator from Illinois from 2005 to 2008 and an Illinois state senator from 1997 to 2004.
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.
Richard Joseph Durbin is an American attorney and politician serving as the senior United States Senator from Illinois, a seat he was first elected to in 1996. He has been the Senate Democratic Whip since 2005, the second-highest position in the Democratic leadership in the U.S. Senate.
List of senators
Class 2
Class 2 U.S. senators belong to the electoral cycle that were elected for three U.S. Congresses in the first elections of 1818, and then the seat was contested every three Congresses (six years) thereafter. The seat in recent years have been contested in 1996, 2002, 2008, and 2014. The next election will be in 2020.
As of January2019[update], there are six living former Senators. The most recent senator to die was Alan J. Dixon (served 1981–1993) on July 6, 2014. The most recently serving senator to die was Paul Simon (served 1985–1997) on December 9, 2003.
Alan John Dixon was an American politician and member of the Democratic Party who served in the Illinois General Assembly from 1951 to 1971, as the Illinois Treasurer from 1971 to 1977, as the Illinois Secretary of State from 1977 to 1981 and as a U.S. Senator from 1981 until 1993.
Paul Martin Simon was an American author and politician from Illinois. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1975 to 1985, and in the United States Senate from 1985 to 1997. A member of the Democratic Party, he unsuccessfully ran for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination.
↑ Shields was not seated because he had not been a citizen for the required nine years. He reached that mark on October 21, 1849, so his subsequent election was accepted by the Senate.
↑ When Smith presented his credentials to serve the remainder of McKinely's term, the Senate refused to seat him based on what it saw as an election rife with fraud and corruption When Smith returned with his credentials for the term he was elected to, the Senate again refused to seat him for the same reasons. Smith and the Governor considered him to be the rightful senator, but he resigned in February 1928. The Senate does not consider him to have been a senator.
1 2 Kirk was elected to fill the remainder of Barack Obama's term in a special election held the same day as the general election for the next term, which he also won.
The United States Senate elections of 1926 were elections for the United States Senate that occurred in the middle of Republican President Calvin Coolidge's second term. The Republican majority was reduced by six seats.
In the United States Senate elections of 1870 and 1871, the Republican Party lost five seats in the United States Senate, though it still retained an overwhelming majority. In advance of these elections, the last four seceded states were readmitted to the Senate.
The United States Senate elections of 1868 and 1869 were elections which had the Republican Party maintain their majority in the United States Senate. However, six former Confederate states were also readmitted separately from the general election, each electing two Republicans. This increased the Republicans' already overwhelming majority to the largest number of seats ever controlled by the party.
The United States Senate elections of 1898 and 1899 were landslide elections which had the Republican Party gain six seats in the United States Senate.
Robert Carlyle Byrd was an American politician who served as a United States Senator from West Virginia for over 51 years, from 1959 until his death in 2010. A member of the Democratic Party, Byrd previously served as a U.S. Representative from 1953 until 1959. He is the longest-serving U.S. Senator in history. In addition, he was, at the time of his death, the longest-serving member in the history of the United States Congress, a record later surpassed by Representative John Dingell of Michigan. Byrd was the last remaining member of the U.S. Senate to have served during the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower, and the last remaining member of Congress to have served during the presidency of Harry S. Truman. Byrd is also the only West Virginian to have served in both chambers of the state legislature and both chambers of Congress.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington or D.C., is the capital of the United States. Founded after the American Revolution as the seat of government of the newly independent country, Washington was named after George Washington, the first president of the United States and a Founding Father. As the seat of the United States federal government and several international organizations, Washington is an important world political capital. The city, located on the Potomac River bordering Maryland and Virginia, is one of the most visited cities in the world, with more than 20 million tourists annually.
The United States Government Publishing Office is an agency of the legislative branch of the United States federal government. The office produces and distributes information products and services for all three branches of the Federal Government, including U.S. passports for the Department of State as well as the official publications of the Supreme Court, the Congress, the Executive Office of the President, executive departments, and independent agencies.
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