Topic summary
Illinois Senate career of Barack Obama
- First 100 days
- Recovery Act
- Trips
- Russia nuclear treaty
- Nobel Peace Prize
- Affordable Care Act
- Dodd–Frank
- Iraq withdrawal
- Killing of Osama bin Laden
- 2011 debt-ceiling crisis
- Libya intervention
- Afghanistan withdrawal
- Benghazi attack
- 2013 debt-ceiling crisis
- Anti-ISIL campaign
- Tan suit controversy
- Iran nuclear deal
- Cuban thaw
- Sanctions against Russia
- Selma 50th anniversary speech
- Paris Agreement
Barack Obama served three terms in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004, when he was elected to the United States Senate. During this part of his career, Obama continued teaching constitutional law part time at the University of Chicago Law School as he had done as a Lecturer from 1992 to 1996, and as a Senior Lecturer from 1996 to 2004.
In 1994, Senator Alice Palmer decided to run for the United States House of Representatives, leaving the Senate's 13th district seat open. When filing opened in 1995 for her seat, Obama entered the race. Eventually, his challengers were disqualified and he won the Democratic primary unopposed in 1996. He won re-election in 1998 and 2002. During his Senate tenure, Obama was involved with a wide range of legislation.
While serving, he ran unsuccessfully for the United States House of Representatives in the 2000 elections. In the redistricting following the 2000 Census, the Democrats gained control of the Illinois Senate, and Obama became more active in his legislation, which included work in areas such as health care, labor, law enforcement, campaign finance reform, welfare, and community reinvestment.