page_title: Richard Shelby
section_title: U.S. Senate
hierarchical_section_title: Richard Shelby / U.S. Senate
caption_attribution_description: English: President Ronald Reagan, Richard Shelby, Rick Rush, Donald Rush, Alan Kranowitz, (Not in all Photos) Photo opportunity with Senator Richard Shelby and Rick Rush to receive a gift of a hand done serigraph print entitled "The Fairbanks: XXIII Olympiad"
context_page_description: Richard Craig Shelby is an American politician serving as the senior United States Senator from Alabama. First elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986, he is the Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, succeeding Thad Cochran. He previously served as Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs and Senate Committee on Rules and Administration. He is the longest serving U.S. Senator from Alabama, having surpassed John Sparkman's previous record in March 2019.
  Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Shelby received his law degree from the Birmingham School of Law in 1961. After law school in 1963, he went on to serve as city prosecutor. During this period he worked as a U.S. Magistrate for the Northern District of Alabama and Special Assistant Attorney General of Alabama. 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.
caption: Shelby greeting President Ronald Reagan in 1988
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