About Chris Van Hollen
Chris Van Hollen was born in Pakistan and went on to serve in the US Senate representing MD. Chris Van Hollen's career in Congress began in 2017, during the modern Congress, and has continued into the current session — 9 years and counting. As a Democrat, Chris sat in a chamber where most colleagues were born in the United States; naturalized citizens remain a small minority of Congress in every era.
Pakistan reserves the ballot for its own citizens: non-native-born residents cannot vote in any election there, no matter how long they have lived in the country. In practical terms: Only Pakistani citizens may vote. Non-citizen residents have no voting rights. Pakistan does not recognize dual citizenship from most countries. That produces a striking asymmetry with the United States, which not only naturalized this member but then elected them to help write federal law. A naturalized American who returned to Pakistan would have no such political voice there.
Chris Van Hollen is the only naturalized-citizen member of Congress tracked here who was born in Pakistan. Across the full history of the US Congress, Pakistan ranks 35th of 38 tracked birth countries, accounting for 1 naturalized-citizen lawmaker.
Why does Pakistan's own voting regime matter on an American member's profile? Because it frames a question the US Congress itself wrestles with whenever immigration and citizenship come up: which countries extend the same democratic trust to people who arrived later that the United States extended to Chris? In Pakistan's case, the answer today is no — a naturalized American returning there would hold no ballot at all.