Shelby, Richard, 1934-

Richard Craig Shelby (born May 6, 1934) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States Senator from Alabama. First elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986 as a Democrat who later defected to the Republican Party in 1994, he chaired the Senate Appropriations Committee, succeeding Thad Cochran. He previously chaired the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs and the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration. He is the longest-serving U.S. Senator from Alabama, surpassing John Sparkman's record in March 2019.

Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Shelby received his law degree from the Birmingham School of Law in 1961. He went on to serve as city prosecutor from 1963 to 1971. During this period he worked as a U.S. Magistrate for the Northern District of Alabama (1966–1970) and Special Assistant Attorney General of Alabama (1969–1971). He won a seat in the Alabama Senate in 1970. In 1978, he was elected from the 7th District to the United States House of Representatives, where he was among a group of conservative Democrats known as the boll weevils.

In 1986, Shelby won a tight race as a Democrat for the U.S. Senate. In 1994, the day after the Republican Revolution in which the GOP gained the majority in Congress midway through President Bill Clinton's first term, Shelby switched parties and became a Republican. He was reelected by a large margin in 1998 and has faced no significant electoral opposition since. He is the dean of Alabama's Congressional delegation.

In February 2021, Shelby announced that he would not seek reelection in 2022.