RightDataUSA


Chris Van Hollen

[Congressional biography]

Born: January 10, 1959 in Karachi, Pakistan

Education:

  • Swarthmore College, B.A., 1982
  • Harvard University, M.P.P., 1985
  • Georgetown University, J.D., 1990

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • Asst. to Sen. Charles Mathias, 1985-1987
  • Staff, U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 1987-1989
  • Advisor to Gov. William Donald Schaefer, 1989-1991

Elected Office:

  • MD House, 1990-1994
  • MD Senate, 1994-2002


Election Results for Chris Van Hollen


Click on the Year to see the results of that election.

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
2002 43 MD D U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 37,494 43.5%
2002 43 MD D U.S. House District 08 General 1 112,788 51.7%
2004 45 MD D U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 67,805 91.1%
2004 45 MD D U.S. House District 08 General 1 215,129 74.9%
2006 47 MD D U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 73,544 91.3%
2006 47 MD D U.S. House District 08 General 1 168,872 76.5%
2008 49 MD D U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 104,108 87.8%
2008 49 MD D U.S. House District 08 General 1 229,740 75.1%
2010 51 MD D U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 57,847 92.9%
2010 51 MD D U.S. House District 08 General 1 153,613 73.3%
2012 53 MD D U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 35,989 92.2%
2012 53 MD D U.S. House District 08 General 1 217,531 63.4%
2014 55 MD D U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 60,556 91.3%
2014 55 MD D U.S. House District 08 General 1 136,722 60.7%
2016 57 MD D U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 470,320 53.2%
2016 57 MD D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 1,659,907 60.9%
2022 63 MD D U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 535,014 80.8%
2022 63 MD D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 1,316,897 65.8%


Age: Age as of July 1 of the year pertaining to this election.



Ideology Data for Chris Van Hollen


Click on the number in the 'Conserv.' column to see all of the key votes for that year.

YearAgeBodyConservative
Coalition		Party UnityPresidential
Support		Vote %LiberalConserv.
P
2003 44 House 97 3 R 22 78 99 95 12
2004 45 House 96 4 R 42 58 100 100 4
2005 46 House 99 1 R 15 85 99 100 0
2006 47 House 95 5 R 29 71 99 90 4
2007 48 House 97 2 R 5 94 98 95 0
2008 49 House 97 1 R 16 83 99 100 0
2009 50 House 98 0 D 96 3 98 100 0
2010 51 House 97 0 D 95 5 98 100 0
2011 52 House 94 4 D 96 4 98 80 0
2012 53 House 95 3 D 88 8 98 90 4
2013 54 House 94 5 D 93 7 99 85 24
2014 55 House 99 0 D 94 6 99 90 8
2015 56 House 98 1 D 92 7 99 95 8
2016 57 House 94 1 D 94 4 94 100 0
2017 58 Senate 99 0 R 33 65 99 100 0
2018 59 Senate 97 3 R 38 62 100 95 9
2019 60 Senate 98 2 R 34 66 99 100 0
2020 61 Senate 100 0 R 29 71 100 100 4
2021 62 Senate 99 0 D 91 7 99 100 3
2022 63 Senate 90 0 D 79 0 90 0
2023 64 Senate 95 1 D 99 0
2024 65 Senate 90 10 D 100
Lifetime conservative rating:   4%


Age: Age as of July 1 of the year pertaining to this row.


Conservative Coalition: According to the publication "Congressional Quarterly" (CQ), this is an alliance of Republicans and Southern Democrats (from back when Southern Democrats tended to be conservative or at least moderate) against Northern Democrats in Congress.

This concept had significant meaning perhaps through the 1980's. These statistics stopped being computed after 2000 because conservative Democrats no longer existed except in very rare cases. The number under the green check is the percentage of time this Representative or Senator voted with the coalition; the number under the red X is the percentage of the time he opposed the coalition. The numbers often do not add to 100% because of instances where no vote was cast.


Party Unity: According to CQ, a Party Unity vote in Congress is one in which the parties were split, with a majority of Democrats opposing a majority of Republicans.

The number under the green check is the percentage of time this Representative or Senator voted with his party; the number under the red X is the percentage of the time he opposed the party. The numbers often do not add to 100% because of instances where no vote was cast.


Presidential Support: These are votes for which the President has stated his position, either in via a message to Congress, by press conference remarks or other public statements and documents.

The number under the green check is the percentage of time this Representative or Senator voted with the President; the number under the red X is the percentage of the time he opposed the President. The numbers often do not add to 100% because of instances where no vote was cast. The "P" column indicates the party of the President in each year.


Vote %: The percentage of roll-call votes in which this Representaive or Senator participated by voting "Yes" or "No" (as opposed to "Present" or not voting at all.)


Liberal Rating: These ratings are based on key votes as identifed by the ultra-liberal advocacy organization called "Americans for Democratic Action" (ADA). They have been rating members of Congress since 1947. The number shown is the percentage of the time this Representative or Senator took the liberal position on a key issue. The methodology behind the calculation can be found here. Ratings followed by an asterisk were calculated the "ADA way" due to missing data regarding key votes in the ADA source material.


Conservative Rating: These ratings are based on key votes as identifed by the conservative advocacy organization called the "American Conservative Union" (ACU). They have been rating members of Congress since 1971. The number shown is the percentage of the time this Representative or Senator took the conservative position on a key issue.

The liberal and conservative ratings are not expected to add to 100% because the two groups use different sets of key votes to determine their ratings. Conservative ratings from 1961 through 1970 (and for 2024) were calculated based on key votes as selected by the creators of this website.