Shelby, Richard, 1934-

<p>Senator Richard Shelby is the senior United States Senator from the State of Alabama. He was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986 and is currently in his sixth term.</p>

<p>Senator Shelby is the former chairman and current vice chair of the Senate Committee on Appropriations. He formerly served as chairman of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration and the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, of which he is the longest serving member in history. He remains a senior member on each of the committees. He also serves on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.</p>

<p>Senator Shelby believes that a smaller government is more effective and has long opposed government bailouts. He is a stalwart supporter of Second Amendment rights and has worked tirelessly to bring jobs and economic growth to Alabama. He has introduced a flat tax in every Congress since his election to the U.S. Senate, as well as a Balanced Budget amendment to the Constitution.</p>

<p>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.</p>

<p>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.</p>

<p>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.</p>

<p>In February 2021, Shelby announced that he would not seek reelection in 2022.</p>

SHELBY, Richard C., a Senator and a Representative from Alabama; born in Birmingham, Ala., May 6, 1934; attended the public schools; graduated, University of Alabama 1957; graduated, University of Alabama School of Law 1963; admitted to the Alabama bar in 1961 and commenced practice in Tuscaloosa; city prosecutor, Tuscaloosa 1963-1971; United States Commissioner, Northern District of Alabama 1966-1970; member, Alabama State senate 1970-1978; elected as a Democrat to the Ninety-sixth Congress in 1978; reelected to the three succeeding Congresses and served from January 3, 1979, to January 3, 1987; was not a candidate for reelection to the House of Representatives in 1986, but was elected to the United States Senate; reelected in 1992, 1998, 2004, 2010, and again in 2016 for the term ending January 3, 2023; changed from the Democratic to the Republican Party in 1994; chair, Select Committee on Intelligence (One Hundred Fifth and One Hundred Sixth Congresses, One Hundred Seventh Congress [January 20, 2001-June 6, 2001]), Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs (One Hundred Eighth and One Hundred Ninth Congresses, One Hundred Fourteenth Congress), Committee on Rules and Administration (One Hundred Fifteenth Congress [January 20, 2017-April 10, 2018]), Committee on Appropriations (One Hundred Fifteenth [April 10, 2018-January 3, 2019] and One Hundred Sixteenth Congresses).