NEW YORK — Now, it's Chris Van Hollen's turn.
The mild-mannered Maryland senator has suddenly emerged as a leading figure in the resistance to Donald Trump’s norm-busting presidency, becoming the latest in a small but growing collection of Democratic officials testing the strength of their political power in a weakened party with no clear leader.
Van Hollen's rise follows his decision to travel 2,000 miles to El Salvador last week to meet with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was wrongly deported and federal courts have said should be returned.
Van Hollen did not secure the release of the Salvadoran citizen who had been living in Maryland. But simply by meeting with him, in defiance of Trump and his ally El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, Van Hollen created a new sense of hope and momentum for Abrego Garcia's family and the anti-Trump resistance.
“Sen. Van Hollen’s leadership in this moment is exactly how Democrats should be pushing back against a wannabe dictator like Donald Trump — calling for law and order over chaos and adhering to the Constitution instead of a tyrant," Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin told The Associated Press. "No matter how much Trump tries to act out his dictatorial fantasies, Democrats will always defend democracy when it’s on the line.”
Van Hollen’s emergence in a critical national debate offers a fresh window into the Democratic Party's monthslong leadership carousel as it struggles to counter a series of Trump administration policies with far-reaching consequences, from slashing the federal workforce to stripping funding from universities, pushing back against court orders and launching a trade war that's rattling the global economy.
Looking for the face of the Democratic Party
The Democrats’ most visible elected leaders, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries and Sen. Chuck Schumer, both of New York, have lost the confidence of many progressive activists for not fighting Trump with the urgency or creativity that the moment demands.
Ezra Levin, co-founder of the resistance group Indivisible, said the growing protest movement is directed both at Trump and “the Schumers of the world, those who want us to roll over and play dead.”
“Courage is impressive and contagious,” Levin said, noting that he's hearing “a ton of positive feedback for (Van Hollen) among our folks on the ground." He said the reaction is akin to the outpouring of support for Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., earlier in the month.
Booker had stepped into the leadership void by delivering a record-breaking 25-hour speech on the Senate floor that briefly served as a rallying point for the frustrated anti-Trump movement. Concerned voters also have packed into rallies hosted by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who have launched a national “Stop Oligarchy” tour.
At the same time, potential 2028 presidential contenders such as Govs. Gavin Newsom of California and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan have gone the other way by downplaying their Trump criticism at times. Others, including Govs. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Wes Moore of Maryland, have largely avoided stepping into the national debate.
“I don't think it’s ever wrong to fight for the constitutional rights of one person, because if we give up on one person’s rights we threaten everybody’s rights," Van Hollen said Sunday on CNN's “State of the Union.” “I think a lot of voters — both Republican and Democrat — are tired of elected officials and politicians who just put their finger to the wind. And I would say that anyone who’s not prepared to stand up and fight for the Constitution doesn’t deserve to lead.”
Critics in both parties go on the attack
Van Hollen's trip was praised by many on the left, but there was no shortage of detractors — even within his own party.
Newsom described the Democratic Party's focus on the Abrego Garcia case as “the distraction of the day" that allows Republicans to avoid tough questions about Trump's tariffs, which have upended global trade and threaten to worsen inflation.
Indeed, Republicans have embraced the Abrego Garcia debate.
White House border czar Tom Homan called Van Hollen's move “disgusting.” Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller, speaking at the White House, said Van Hollen's "heart is reserved for an illegal alien who’s a member of a foreign terrorist organization.”
“It seems to me that these Democrats are representing the illegal aliens against the very constituents, the U.S. citizens, that they’re supposed to be protecting,” said Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., also on CNN.
When pressed repeatedly, Emmer did not say whether he backed Trump's suggestion that U.S. citizens convicted of serious crimes could be jailed in other countries such as El Salvador.
Abrego Garcia came to the United States illegally in 2013 at 16, but an immigration judge in 2019 granted him legal protection that allowed him to stay and work in the U.S. He has a valid work permit. His wife and their three children are U.S. citizens.
The administration insists that Abrego Garcia is a MS-13 gang member, although he has not been charged with any crimes.
Van Hollen's long path
Van Hollen is no stranger to national politics, although he has perhaps spent as much time shaping the political landscape during his two decades in Congress as fighting on its front lines.
Since he joined Congress in 2003, the 66-year-old attorney has done his turn as head of both the House and Senate campaign arms, a rare feat that put him at the center of his party's national political strategy.
That said, he has a lower national profile than other Democrats who have stepped into the spotlight in recent months.
Van Hollen has never run for president nor hinted he may. Sanders nearly won the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, while Booker ran unsuccessfully for president that year and told the AP recently that he would not rule out another bid.
Still, Van Hollen has been especially aggressive against Trump this year.
He was a co-host of the first major rally against Trump and Elon Musk's cuts at the U.S. Agency for International Development, a protest that brought out a dozen members of Congress.
Given that so many government agencies and workers live in Maryland, the senator has been a leading advocate against Trump's cuts, including those at NASA, the National Institutes of Health and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, among others.
On Sunday, he was interviewed on five major new shows.
He repeatedly pushed back against questions on allegations about Abrego Garcia's gang affiliations. Like Democrats across the country, he tried to cast the debate as not about immigration but about Trump's refusal to follow the law.
A federal appeals court issued a blistering order Thursday raising serious constitutional concerns about the Trump administration's behavior.
The three-judge panel said the Republican president’s government is “asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order.”
Van Hollen highlighted those concerns.
“My whole point here is if you deprive one man of his constitutional rights, you threaten the constitutional rights of everybody,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.” “I’m not vouching for the individual. I’m vouching for his rights under the Constitution.”
