47 ABC sits down with U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Chris Van Hollen

As the election looms closer a race that many Marylander’s have their eyes on is the race for United States Senate. The seat long held by Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) is up for grabs and poll have shown two candidates, Democrat Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-D8) and Del. Kathy Szeliga (R – D7). 

47 ABC sat down with both candidates for a two-part series.

We started with Van Hollen, who believes he is running for the same things that Eastern Shore Marylander’s want.

“I think if you talk to folks on the Eastern Shore they want to make sure that their kids have a bright future and that they can retire in dignity and that’s what I’ve been fighting for,” Van Hollen said.

Van Hollen has made no secret that filling the shoes of Sen. Mikulksi will be no easy task, although he said what has helped is having the long time senator endorse him.

“I’ve also fought with Senator Mikulski for issues like equal pay or equal work, making sure we try to improve college affordability so that kids aren’t graduating from places like Salisbury University with these huge  debts that put them behind before they even get a start.” Van Hollen said.

Van Hollen said Wallops Island, although not in Maryland is also at the top of his list because of the amount of Eastern Shore residents that work there. If elected, Van Hollen said  the NASA facility on Virginia’s eastern shore will remain a priority and something that he continues to push for funding for.

“I’ve already talked to the head of NASA, Goddard about the importance of maintaining that site as a NASA launch site there’s some other states that would love to take that business away we’re going to work very hard to make sure we keep that home at Wallops,” Van Hollen said.

Something else the congressman is passionate about, a living wage for all Americans.  Van Hollen said he’s for gradually raising the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour. His belief, the more money people have in their pockets the less taxpayers will have to pay things like medical service and food and nutrition programs.    

In past coverage 47 ABC has found that some small business owners believe that raising the minimum wage would hurt their bottom line and cause them to have to let go of workers. Van Hollen though believes the opposite will happen, using an example from the past.

“You know Henry Ford adopted this model many years ago he wanted to make sure he paid his employees, his workers enough money that they could buy the cars that they were manufacturing in his automobile plants and to the extent that people get that living wage they’re going to go out and spend it and they’re going to buy goods and services from small businesses and other business in the community,” Van Hollen said.

Staying on the topic of our communities,  one thing that’s been hard not to notice has been the amount of gun violence that has continued to make headlines most notably this year the shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, the deadliest mass shooting on American soil. 

Van Hollen said the solution to a lot of gun violence is tougher gun laws and universal background checks, something already done in Maryland.

“I respect the second amendment. No ones coming to take peoples guns. I do support reasonable gun safety measures, like making sure if you’re on the terrorist watch list and you’re too dangerous to board an airplane you shouldn’t be able to go down the street and buy a semi-automatic assault weapon,” Van Hollen said.

Last, but certainly not least we touched on the topic of military and veterans. Van Hollen said he believes very strongly in national security.

“In addition to making sure that our troops in the field have all the equipment and support they need we also need to make sure that we take care of our veterans and our returning soldiers when they’re back here at home,” Van Hollen said.

The general election is November 8, 2016.