The 1996 United States Senate election in Illinois took place on November 5, 1996. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Paul Simon chose to retire, rather than seek a third term in office. In the Democratic primary, U.S. Representative Dick Durbin emerged victorious, while state representative Al Salvi won the Republican primary. Though the election was initially anticipated to be close, Durbin ended up defeating Salvi by a comfortable double-digit margin of victory, allowing him to win what would be the first of five terms in the Senate.
The primaries and general elections coincided with those for other federal offices (president and House), as well as those for state offices.
For the primaries, turnout was 25.85%, with 1,583,406 votes cast. For the general election, turnout was 63.79%, with 4,250,722 votes cast.
Durbin won the election easily.