Roland Burris

Roland Wallace Burris (born August 3, 1937) is an American politician and attorney who served as Attorney General of Illinois from 1991 to 1995 and as a United States senator from Illinois from 2009 until 2010. A member of the Democratic Party, Burris was the first African-American elected to statewide office in Illinois.

Burris was first elected to public office in 1978, becoming the Comptroller of Illinois, and was reelected in 1982 and 1986. He was elected Illinois Attorney General in 1990, becoming the second African-American state attorney general in U.S. history. Burris unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for Governor of Illinois in 1994.

Burris ran four other unsuccessful campaigns for public office. These include campaigns for governor in 1998 and 2002, in both of which he lost in the Democratic primary. Burris also ran as an independent candidate in the 1995 Chicago mayoral election, losing to incumbent Richard M. Daley by a significant margin.

In January 2009, Governor Rod Blagojevich appointed Burris to the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama, who resigned to become president of the United States. The appointment was controversial due to an ongoing corruption investigation into Blagojevich and rumors that he was paid for the appointment. Burris was never convicted of any wrongdoing.