A United States senator who was born in Karachi has confirmed that he is thinking seriously about running for president in 2028. Chris Van Hollen, the Democratic senator from Maryland, told Fox 5 DC that he has been exploring the idea for some time, a remark that immediately placed him among the early names in what promises to be a wide open contest for his party’s nomination.
Van Hollen made the disclosure while shutting down a different piece of speculation. In the days after the midterm elections, his name had been mentioned as a possible successor to Chuck Schumer as the leader of Senate Democrats. The Maryland senator said plainly that the leadership job is not what he wants, and that he had instead been looking closely at a presidential campaign in 2028.
The timing of his remarks is no accident. Democrats regained control of the Senate in the midterm elections held on November 3, and the party is now in the middle of a fierce internal argument about its direction. Senate Democrats are preparing to choose their next leader in a secret ballot in the coming weeks, and Schumer, the 75-year-old New Yorker who has led the caucus since 2017, has already said he will seek the post again. Van Hollen has declined to endorse him, saying only that the party should have a full and open discussion before it makes its choice.
Van Hollen did not walk away from the leadership question empty handed. He set out a condition for whoever takes the job, saying the next majority leader must make clear the party will use all of its power to end what he called the illegal and senseless war in Iran, and to do it now. His office later added that he is actively exploring a 2028 presidential campaign to shape the direction of the party and the country, and to fight a rigged economy and a corrupt political system. It echoed criticism he made last December, when he called the Democratic Party the party of the status quo.
What makes Van Hollen’s story stand out, well beyond Washington, is where it began. He was born in Karachi on January 10, 1959, the son of an American foreign service officer. He spent part of his early life in Pakistan and India and attended Kodaikanal International School in Tamil Nadu before studying in the United States. He studied philosophy at Swarthmore College, earned a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University, and later obtained a law degree from Georgetown University. He was admitted to the Maryland Bar in 1990.
Van Hollen has spoken warmly about his birthplace more than once. In a message marking Pakistan’s Independence Day last year, he said he was proud to have been born in Karachi and described his connection with the country as special. That personal link gives his possible presidential run a resonance in Pakistan that few American political stories ever have.
His career in politics has been long and steady. Before entering Congress, he served in the Maryland State Senate. He then spent fourteen years in the House of Representatives, from 2003 to 2017, before winning a seat in the US Senate in January 2017. He is now 67 years old and in his second term in the Senate, a position that has given him a national profile on foreign policy and on the economy. In recent months he spent much of his time travelling across the country to support Democratic candidates during the midterm campaign.
One striking detail was who had been pushing him towards the leadership job. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic senator-elect from Michigan, publicly endorsed Van Hollen for the top post in the Senate and spoke of his wish for fresh leadership. El-Sayed, who is set to become the first Muslim senator in American history, had Van Hollen’s backing in his own campaign. Yet even as El-Sayed praised him, he acknowledged that Van Hollen seemed to have another goal in mind, a remark widely read as a reference to the presidency.
He is not the only Democrat thinking about 2028. Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock of Georgia, along with Mark Kelly of Arizona, are among the other names mentioned as possible contenders for the nomination. The field is still taking shape, and none of the leading figures has formally declared a candidacy. Van Hollen has said he will decide by early 2027 whether to run or seek Senate re-election.
If he runs, the contest will test whether a senator known for careful, policy driven politics can capture the imagination of a party still arguing about what it stands for. His Karachi birthplace will be a footnote in that campaign for most American voters, but it will not be a footnote in Pakistan, where it would be a source of pride and curiosity in equal measure. For now, Van Hollen has not declared, and he has not ruled it out. He has simply let it be known that he is thinking about it, and in Washington, that is usually the first real step towards a campaign.
