Shelby, Richard Craig (1934-…), served as a United States senator from Alabama from 1987 to 2023. He was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat in 1986 and reelected as a Democrat in 1992. Shelby declared himself a Republican in November 1994, one day after an election that gave the Republican Party control of Congress. As a Republican, he was reelected to the Senate in 1998, 2004, 2010, and 2016.
Shelby was born in Birmingham, Alabama, on May 6, 1934. He received a bachelor’s degree in 1957 and a law degree in 1963, both from the University of Alabama. In 1961 and 1962, he worked as a law clerk for the Supreme Court of Alabama.
From 1963 to 1971, Shelby was city prosecutor of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. From 1966 to 1970, he was also U.S. commissioner for the northern district of Alabama, and from 1968 to 1970, he also served as special assistant attorney general for the state of Alabama. From 1970 to 1978, Shelby served in the Alabama state Senate. He won election to the U.S. Senate in 1986 and took office in 1987. He served for several years as chairman of the Senate’s Rules and Administration Committee and of the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee. He also served on the Appropriations Committee and the Environment and Public Works Committee.
