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 switched to the Republican Party in 1994, he chaired the Senate Appropriations Committee from 2018 to 2021. He previously chaired the Senate Intelligence Committee, the Senate Banking Committee, and the Senate Rules Committee. 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.


== Early life and education ==
Shelby was born in Birmingham, Alabama, the son of Alice L. (née Skinner) and Ozie Houston Shelby. He graduated in 1953 from Hueytown High School in Hueytown, Alabama, then the University of Alabama, receiving an undergraduate degree in 1957. He attended the Birmingham School of Law, where he earned his Juris Doctor in 1961. He was admitted to the Alabama State Bar on August 29, 1961. He received an LL.B. from the University of Alabama School of Law in 1963.


== Early career ==
Shelby is a member of the American Bar Association, the Alabama State Bar, the American Judicature Society, Alabama Law Institute, Delta Chi fraternity, and Phi Alpha Delta legal fraternity.

Shelby was a city prosecutor in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, from 1963 to 1971. From 1966 to 1970, he was a U.S. Magistrate for the Northern District of Alabama; from 1969 to 1971, he was a special assistant state attorney general.
Shelby was elected to the Alabama Senate in 1970 and served until 1978. That year he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from the Tuscaloosa-based 7th district upon Walter Flowers's retirement. He was reelected three times. Shelby was one of the more conservative Democrats in Congress, and a member of the boll weevils, a group of moderate to conservative-leaning Democrats who often worked with President Ronald Reagan on defense issues.


== U.S. Senate ==


=== Elections ===


==== 1986 ====

In the 1986 U.S. Senate election in Alabama, Shelby narrowly won the Democratic nomination for the Senate seat held by Republican Jeremiah Denton, the first Republican elected to the Senate from Alabama since Reconstruction. He won a very close race as the Democrats regained control of the Senate.


==== 1992 ====

Shelby was easily reelected even as Bill Clinton lost Alabama's electoral votes.


==== 1998 ====

On November 9, 1994, Shelby switched his party affiliation to Republican, one day after the Republican Revolution in which Republicans won control of both houses in the midterm elections, giving them a 53–47 majority in the Senate. He won his first full term as a Republican in 1998 by a large margin. 


==== 2004 ====

He faced no significant opposition in 2004.


==== 2010 ====

He faced no significant opposition and was reelected to a fifth term.


==== 2016 ====

He was reelected to a sixth term.A September 2009 poll showed Shelby had a 58% approval rating, with 35% disapproving.In 2014, The Wall Street Journal criticized Shelby for hoarding campaign and PAC contributions and not sharing them with colleagues.


=== Tenure ===


==== 1980s ====
In 1987, Shelby opposed Reagan's nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court, a move attributed to lobbying by Alabama African-American leaders who reminded Shelby that he had relied on support from black voters in narrowly defeating Denton in 1986. In 1991, Shelby supported President George H. W. Bush's conservative Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas.


==== 1990s ====
In 1991, Shelby sponsored legislation granting federal recognition to the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians. Though confident it would pass, Shelby stressed the "need to get more documentation regarding establishment of their tribal identity." The Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs voted 11 to 2 in favor of the legislation on July 18.Shelby publicly feuded with President Bill Clinton during the first half of Clinton's first term.