Chris Van Hollen
Christopher " Chris " Van Hollen, Jr. ( born January 10, 1959 in Karachi, Pakistan ) is an American politician of the Democratic Party and, since 2003 member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Maryland.
Biography
Chris Van Hollen is the son of a diplomat couple. His father Christopher Van Hollen was at the time of his birth Second Secretary at the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan and later Deputy Assistant Foreign Minister for Middle East and South Asia Affairs ( Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs ), and most recently from 1972 to 1976 Ambassador to Sri Lanka, while his mother Eliza Van Hollen Farnsworth worked as a specialist in Southeast Asia in the State Department.
He himself studied after visiting the Middlesex School, first at Swarthmore College and acquired in 1982 with a Bachelor of Arts (BA). A subsequent first postgraduate degree in Public Policy at Harvard University, where he graduated in 1985 with a Master of Arts ( MPP ) from. Another post-graduate studies in law at Georgetown University, he graduated in 1990 with a Juris Doctor ( JD); after which he was admitted as a lawyer.
In 1990, he began his political career at the same time with the election in the House of Representatives of Maryland (Maryland House of Delegates ), where he served as a representative of the Democrats until 1994. Then he was between 1994 and 2002 Member of the Senate of Maryland (Maryland State Senate ).
2002 Van Hollen was elected for the first time in the U.S. House of Representatives. There he takes after four re- elections since the January 3, 2003 the 8th Congressional District of Maryland. On his first election, he was able to win with 51.71 to 47.49 percent against the Republican incumbent Connie Morella. Recently he succeeded in 2012 with 63:34 percent of the vote to re-elect against the Republicans No Timmerman. Within the leadership of the democratic majority faction he took to succeed Rahm Emanuel from 2007 to 2011 as a Democratic Campaign Committee Chairman ranks sixth.