During the final days of the 2024 presidential election campaign, I received a suspicious email: “Harris Fundraiser for a Strong Diplomacy featuring Senator Chris Van Hollen.” It was an invitation to a political event in “downtown DC.” I did not attend the fundraiser. I never met Van Hollen.
The United Nations Foundation, an NGO, was associated with the fundraiser. The email said: “The main theme of the event is reinforcing support for global governance institutions, primarily the UN.” How? By donating to “Harris for President.”
The “Harris Fundraiser” offered me four donation levels: Host ($3,300) Supporter ($250) Champion ($500) Co-Host ($1,000) or Nextgen ($100). I chose No-Host ($0). Again, I did not attend the event.
I considered the “Harris” email suspicious for two reasons. First, I did not recognize the sender. Secondly, anyone who sees my social media posts would know I am not a Democrat or a Harris supporter. I worked for every GOP presidential campaign since Gerald R. Ford.
I am a life member of the Republican National Committee, a member of the Advisory Council of the D.C. Republican Party, and a former GOP elected official in Indianapolis, Indiana. As a member of the D.C. Republican Party, I was elected Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner (ANC) for Single Member District 2A04 in Foggy Bottom.
Since I am a former U.S. diplomat, a life member of the American Foreign Service Association, I carefully review my emails to delete and report potential scams. As a U.S. Department of State retiree, I carefully monitor my emails to report potential scams.
During the final days of the Biden Administration, I reported the Harris-Van Hollen email to State’s Personnel Division. Since I got no reply, I recently sent the email to President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. I gave them the names of seven people identified in the email as members of the “Host Committee” of the political fundraiser. I am concerned that my government personnel records were wrongly accessed for political purposes.
I lived in San Francisco during the political rise of Kamala Harris from District Attorney to Attorney General to U.S. Senator. As a California voter, I considered Harris incompetent and unqualified for public office. I never voted for her. I never donated to her campaigns.
When I left San Francisco in 2015, I thought I had “unburdened” myself of the comical Kamala Harris. Now in Washington, D.C, her fundraising team asked me to donate to her campaign so she could preserve “U.S. leadership on the world stage.”
The “Harris Fundraiser” email was addressed to “Dear Foreign Service Community Colleague.” It was obviously mass emailed. The email said the fundraiser would be “centered around preserving robust US diplomacy.”
Based on her performance as vice president, I do not consider Harris knowledgeable about U.S. diplomacy, foreign affairs, or anything else. Yet, Van Hollen thought Harris was qualified to be President of the United States!
In 2024, Van Hollen was wrong to support Kamala Harris. In 2025, he was wrong to support the legal rights of an alleged MS-13 gang member and illegal immigrant from El Salvador, Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
Marylanders may rightly question Van Hollen’s judgment for helping Kilmar Garcia while ignoring an alarming increase in gang violence. Many Marylanders are hurting from Biden and Harris's open border policies. Yet Van Hollen thinks an Open Border policy is “strong diplomacy” and “U.S. leadership on the world stage.”
After his recent visit with Abrego Garcia in El Salvador, Van Hollen is not an example of political strength. While Marylanders are hurting, Van Hollen supports the rights of gang members and illegal immigrants over his voters.
I urge President Trump and Secretary of State Rubio to aggressively investigate how individuals and organizations accessed my contact information for political purposes. Senator Van Hollen and others could face political and legal problems if federal laws were broken.
James Patterson is a political and communications consultant in Washington, D.C.