The likelihood that Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin will forgo a re-election bid in 2026 would unleash pent-up ambition among a new generation of Illinois Democrats eager for a rare opportunity to represent the nation’s sixth-most-populous state in Washington.
Durbin, 80, is expected to disclose his political plans any day now. While the senator has been mum on his decision, a retirement announcement is widely presumed and would prompt many would-be successors, including at least three of Illinois’s 14 House Democrats, to swiftly enter the race or consider doing so.
“If the senator makes a decision on this, I suspect ...