Chris Van Hollen for President
Oppose genocide, fight fascism, and know when to admit when you're wrong.
In 1990 Chris Van Hollen was contemplating a run for the Maryland General Assembly.
At the same time, a charismatic, sophisticated former AIPAC operative and Jewish communal relations executive was also considering a run for the seat. Had he pursued the alternative path, he would have been a formidable candidate for public office.
He instead chose communal service and eventually pivoted to consulting and entrepreneurship, yet I can’t help but imagine an alternate timeline in which Van Hollen is replaced by a state rep from the AIPAC wing of the party—who goes on to serve in the U.S. House and ultimately the U.S. Senate.
In this alternate timeline, does our AIPAC-affiliated senator excoriate the Jewish state for “withholding aid” from Gaza and “indiscriminately bombing” its civilian population? Does he join Bernie Sanders and thirteen other Democrats in voting to cancel military aid to Israel in accordance with U.S. law? Would he call for the U.S. to impose targeted BDS, champion a besieged UNWRA, and recognize a State of Palestine?
I sincerely doubt it. I cannot imagine a senator from the AIPAC wing of the party doing any of these things—let alone the courageous steps Van Hollen has taken on behalf of his illegally deported and imprisoned constituent Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia and the constitutional protections encapsulated in his case.
Fortunately, we live in this timeline: we are well served by the leadership of a senior Senator from Maryland who has not just opposed the Trump Administration’s lawless deportations in speech, but has forced the issue and put himself on the line by traveling to El Salvador to advocate for Abrego Garcia and speak to him in person. Vanishingly rare are those in government willing to speak truth to power, whether that power is being abused by Trump’s State Department or Joe Biden’s.
Following the geriatric nightmare blunt rotation of Trump-Biden-Trump, the reluctance to elect someone who would be 78 at the end of a second term is more than understandable. Yet I think 70 is exactly the right age to serve as head of the executive branch of government and Commander in Chief.
At an intuitive level, this kind of nonpartisan patriotism is more than good policy: it’s good politics. Where he deems an action counter to American interests, Van Hollen’s inclination to speak up and vote accordingly could be lauded as independent—or, as with the late, great John McCain—as maverick.
Were he alive and in his prime, today John McCain would hold a prohibitive advantage in the mainstream moderate lane of the Democratic party primary contest for President. Alas, his political career is a relic from another era: McCain earned his stripes as a legitimate war hero and triumphant survivor of torture in North Vietnamese prisoner of war camps. They don’t make ‘em like this anymore.
Like the former Republican nominee for president, Senator Van Hollen was born abroad in Karachi, Pakistan. Political nerds have assured me that just as McCain was eligible for the highest office in the land (despite being born in the Panama Canal Zone), Van Hollen would also be legally qualified to serve as President.
Owning one’s mistakes and working to rectify them is a superpower. It requires volumes of reflection, integrity, moral reasoning, and humility. We don’t see enough of these traits in our leaders, but they are table stakes if one is to assume the awesome power of the office of President of the United States—and they’re politically lucrative.
If elected, President Van Hollen would be inaugurated in 2029 at the ripe old age of 70. Following the geriatric nightmare blunt rotation of Trump-Biden-Trump, the reluctance to elect someone who would be 78 at the end of a second term is more than understandable. Yet I think 70 is exactly the right age to serve as head of the executive branch of government and Commander in Chief—especially these days.
With age comes experience, and with experience comes priceless wisdom. Independent and clear-eyed leadership aside, Van Hollen stands out in a crowded field thanks to his ability to do something exceedingly rare in politics: admit he was wrong. When questioning Marco Rubio last month, Van Hollen said, “I have to tell you directly and personally that I regret voting for you for Secretary of State.”
This may seem like a small thing, but it was a huge fuckup that every Senate Democrat voted to confirm Rubio in the first place—and it’s a significant departure from Capitol Hill orthodoxy for Van Hollen to devote a chunk of his precious time to a public declaration of regret for his error.
In life, and in Washington, owning one’s mistakes and working to rectify them is a superpower. It requires volumes of reflection, integrity, moral reasoning, and humility. We don’t see enough of these traits in our leaders; indeed we have a political culture that seems to expect these traits less with each passing election cycle. But they are table stakes if one is to assume the awesome power of the office of President of the United States—and they’re politically lucrative.
The fast-approaching Democratic primary contest challenges us to do more than determine who is best positioned to square off against Vice President Vance or Secretary Rubio. This process demands a brutally honest, retrospective assessment of how the Democrats got here so that we—as a party—might avoid ever falling so far out of power again. We will need to understand and openly admit where we were wrong, in both policy and politics.
Shortly after the 2024 election, Van Hollen spoke bluntly with Mehdi Hasan: “President Biden’s inaction, given the suffering in Gaza, is shameful…and it looks weak.” He went on: “The deeper issue: why couldn’t [the Biden Administration] just do what was right for American values and American interests? Because if you could do that, the politics in my view—whatever they were—would flow from that.”
A month later, the former chair of both the Democratic House and Senate Congressional Campaign Committees expanded in the pages of the Washington Post: “Nothing will haunt President Joe Biden’s foreign policy legacy as much as his failed policies in the Middle East. His ineffective approach, coupled with Donald Trump’s election, now sets the stage for an unprecedented deterioration in our efforts to secure a two-state solution and address the root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
He was right then, he’s right now, and he would be right all throughout a party primary livestreamed raw and unfiltered to millions of Americans desperate to move beyond the bipartisan carnage of the Biden-Trump era.
It’s time the nation became more familiar with the Democrats’ own maverick senator. To get his party right with the voters, and to move our wounded nation forward, I nominate Chris Van Hollen for President of the United States.
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(I know, I know. Van Halen is not Van Hollen. But American politics are too stupid for this 1991 rock opus to not be Chris Van Hollen’s 2028 presidential campaign theme song.)
Admitting mistakes. Nothing stands in greater contrast to the present administration than actions which rise from humility and compassion. Humility demands genuine courage. It does not/can not rise from veneer-thin bravado which seeks only to gather and collect power as an antidote to fear.
The scenarios above involving AOC are icing on the cake you have delivered to us in your endorsement of van Hollen. Imagine Jasmine Crockett as AG within that mix. My mind bends..thank you.
Yet another poignant and beautifully written essay. Thank you for opening my eyes and brain to Van Hollen as potential POTUS. Admittedly, I am very deeply conflicted about Israel. I continue to share your wisdom in an attempt to resolve the conflict and move ahead. The difficulty is immense. I agree, you are doing the yeoman’s work of bringing forth the truth.