Harold Trent Franks (born June 19, 1957) is a former American politician and businessman who served as a U.S. Representative for Arizona's 8th congressional district, serving in Congress from 2003 to 2017. He is a member of the Republican Party. The district, numbered as the 2nd District from 2003 to 2013, is located in the West Valley portion of the Valley of the Sun and includes Glendale, Surprise, Sun City, Peoria and part of western Phoenix.
In December 2017, the House Ethics Committee announced that it would investigate Franks for sexual harassment and misconduct. Franks had repeatedly asked two female staffers to bear children as surrogate mothers for him, and allegedly offered one of them $5 million to carry his child and retaliated against her when she declined. The women feared that Franks wanted to impregnate them sexually as part of the surrogacy process. Franks acknowledged discussing surrogacy with the aides but denied the other allegations; he resigned from Congress immediately after the ethics investigation was announced, blaming his situation on "the current cultural and media climate".
Video Trent Franks
Early life, education, and business career
Franks was born in Uravan, Colorado, a company town which is now a ghost town. Franks is the son of Juanita and Edward Taylor Franks. He was born with a cleft lip and palate. After his parents separated, Franks took care of his younger siblings. While his parents took financial responsibility, he overtook the leadership role at home. Franks graduated from Briggsdale High School in Colorado in 1976. After high school, Franks bought a drilling rig and moved to Texas to drill wells with his best friend and his younger brother. He moved to Arizona in 1981, where he continued to drill wells.
In 1987, he completed a course of study at the non-accredited National Center for Constitutional Studies, formerly known as the Freemen Institute, in Utah. For one year, from 1989 to 1990, he attended the Arizona campus of Ottawa University, based in Ottawa, Kansas.
In September 2004, Franks told Franchising World that he had been a small business owner for more than 25 years. He is one of the richest congressmen, with a reported net worth of $20+ million.
Maps Trent Franks
Early political career
Arizona legislature
In 1984, while working as an engineer for an oil and gas royalty-purchasing firm, Franks began his political career by running for a seat in the Arizona House of Representatives, against incumbent Democrat Glenn Davis, an attorney, in District 20 in central Phoenix. Franks, who was a member of the Arizona Right to Life organization and president of the Arizona Christian Action Council, campaigned against abortion and in favor of tougher child abuse laws. He defeated Davis by 155 votes. In the state legislature, Franks served as vice-chairman of the Commerce Committee and Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Child Protection and Family Preservation.
Franks was defeated in his re-election bid in November 1986.
Mecham administration
In January 1987, he was appointed by Republican Governor Evan Mecham to head the Arizona Governor's Office for Children, which is a Cabinet-level division of the Governor's office responsible for overseeing and coordinating state policy and programs for Arizona's children.
In late 1987, Franks founded the Arizona Family Research Institute, a nonprofit organization affiliated with James Dobson's Focus on the Family. He was the Executive Director of the organization for four and a half years.
In April 1988, after Mecham was impeached and removed from office, Franks and other appointees resigned their positions. Franks had been under investigation following an Associated Press report about his decision to spend nearly $60,000, without getting bids, for a conference at a former campaign contributor's hotel. Later in 1988, he ran again for a legislative seat, moving to District 18 shortly before the filing deadline. He was successful in the Republican primary but lost in the November general election.
Political activism
In 1992, when Franks was chairman of Arizonans for Common Sense, one of the organization's efforts was a constitutional amendment on the November 1992 ballot in Arizona that banned most abortions. The initiative lost, getting about 35 percent of the votes cast.
In August 1995, Arizonans for an Empowered Future, of which Franks was chairman, launched an initiative campaign to amend the state constitution, replacing the graduated state income tax with a flat 3.5 percent rate, and allowing parents to deduct the costs of private-school tuition. The initiative was not one of those appearing on the ballot in 1996.
Franks worked for and later became president of Liberty Petroleum Corporation, a small oil exploration company established in 1996. Franks served as a consultant to conservative activist Pat Buchanan's presidential campaign.
U.S. House of Representatives
Elections
- 1994
Franks ran for Arizona's 4th congressional district in 1994, after incumbent U.S. Representative Jon Kyl decided to run for the U.S. Senate. He lost to John Shadegg, 43%-30%.
- 2002
Following the 2000 Census, Arizona got two additional seats. Franks' home in Glendale was drawn into the 2nd district. That district had previously been the 3rd District, represented by 13-term incumbent Republican Bob Stump, who was not running for reelection. The initial favorite in the race was Lisa Jackson Atkins, Stump's longtime chief of staff, whom Stump had endorsed as his successor. Atkins had long been very visible in the district (in contrast to her more low-key boss) to the point that many thought she was the district's representative. Franks narrowly defeated Atkins in the seven-candidate Republican primary, 28%-26%, a difference of just 797 votes. He won the November 2002 general election, defeating Democrat Randy Camacho, 60%-37%.
- 2004
Franks faced unusually strong competition in the Republican primary from the more moderate businessman Rick Murphy. Franks defeated him 64%-36%. He won re-election to a second term, by defeating Camacho in a rematch, 59%-38%.
- 2006
He won re-election to a third term with 59% of the vote.
- 2008
He won re-election to a fourth term with 59% of the vote.
- 2010
Franks was again challenged in the Republican primary. However, he easily defeated Charles Black, 81%-19%. He won re-election to a fifth term with 65% of the vote.
- 2012
For his first five terms, Franks represented a vast district encompassing most of northwestern Arizona. While the district appeared rural, the bulk of its population was in the West Valley, which had dominated the district since it was drawn into what was then the 3rd in 1967. The district appeared to be gerrymandered because of a narrow tendril connecting the Hopi reservation to the rest of the district. However, due to longstanding disputes between the Hopi and Navajo, it had long been believed the two tribes should be in separate districts.
However, after the 2010 census, Franks' district was renumbered as the 8th District, and reduced to essentially the Maricopa County portion of the old 2nd. As evidence of how much the West Valley had dominated the district, Franks retained 92 percent of his former constituents, even as he lost 85 percent of his old district's land. He was challenged in the Republican primary by Tony Passalacqua, whom Franks defeated easily, 83%-17%. The new 8th was no less Republican than the old 2nd, and Franks won a sixth term with 63% of the vote.
- 2014
Franks won his party's election in the Republican primary on August 26, 2014.
Positions
The National Journal has ranked Franks among the "most conservative" members of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2009. He was a member of the Republican Study Committee.
Online gaming
Franks is a staunch advocate of a federal prohibition of online poker. In 2006, he cosponsored H.R. 4411, the Goodlatte-Leach Internet Gambling Prohibition Act and H.R. 4777, the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act.
Homeland security
On October 14, 2009, Franks joined with three fellow Representatives in calling for the investigation of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) over allegations of trying to plant "spies," based on a CAIR memo indicating that they "will develop national initiatives such as Lobby Day, and placing Muslim interns in Congressional offices." The request followed publication of the book Muslim Mafia. Representative Sue Myrick had written the foreword, which characterized CAIR as subversive and aligned with terrorists. CAIR has countered that these initiatives are extensively used by all advocacy groups and accused Franks and his colleagues of intending to intimidate American Muslims who "take part in the political process and exercise their rights."
Taxes
Franks is a signer of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. In 2010, Franks voted against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. He has high approval ratings from the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council. In November 2011, he voted to pass H.R. 2930, which authorizes crowdfunding for small businesses.
In 2009 Franks signed a pledge sponsored by Americans for Prosperity promising to vote against any Global Warming legislation that would raise taxes.
Criticism of the Obama administration
He opposes the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, claiming "the thought of Americans' health care decisions being put into the hands of an unimaginably large bureaucracy is a frightening prospect." He is not supported by American Public Health Association or the Children's Health Fund.
In September 2009, he stirred controversy when criticizing President Barack Obama. He said "Obama's first act as president of any consequence, in the middle of a financial meltdown, was to send taxpayers' money overseas to pay for the killing of unborn children in other countries. Now, I got to tell you, if a president will do that, there's almost nothing that you should be surprised at after that. We shouldn't be shocked that he does all these other insane things. A president that has lost his way that badly, that has no ability to see the image of God in these little fellow human beings, if he can't do that right, then he has no place in any station of government and we need to realize that he is an enemy of humanity."
Abortion
In a 2010 interview, discussing the legacy of slavery which Franks described as a "crushing mark on America's soul", the congressman said, "Half of all black children are aborted. Far more of the African American community is being devastated by the policies of today than were being devastated by the policies of slavery."
In June 2013, he proposed a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks, without exceptions for rape and incest. In defense, he stirred controversy when saying that "the incidents of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low." He later clarified, "Pregnancies from rape that result in abortion after the beginning of the sixth month are very rare." The bill passed by a vote of 228-196.
In 2017, he again proposed the same bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks without exceptions for rape and incest. The bill passed by a vote of 237-189.
Franks presided over a hearing to ban abortions after 20 weeks in the District of Columbia, in which he did not allow D.C.'s lone delegate and Member of Congress, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, to testify. In doing so, he said Congress has the authority to "exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever" in the District, even though the heavily Democratic district is strongly opposed to the ban.
Franks has also been involved in the founding of a crisis pregnancy center in Tempe, Arizona, that's still in operation today. In the past, Franks has picketed abortion clinics but has ceased to do so stating in a June 2013 interview that "It became clear to me that I could be more effective by trying to do something to light a candle rather than curse the darkness."
Other
During the 2008 campaign, Franks stated that he is skeptical about global warming.
He opposes same-sex marriage and abortion.
Franks supports the right to bear firearms. The interest group Gun Owners of America has given Franks high approval ratings. In 2011, he voted to pass the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act.
Franks has also been active with Operation Smile.
Committee assignments
- Committee on Armed Services
- Subcommittee on Strategic Forces
- Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities
- Committee on the Judiciary
- Subcommittee on Courts, Commercial and Administrative Law
- Subcommittee on the Constitution (Chairman)
Caucus memberships
- DUI Caucus
- Congressional Hispanic Conference
- Education Freedom Caucus
- Human Rights Caucus
- India Caucus
- Israel Allies Caucus
- International Religious Freedom Caucus
- Liberty Caucus
- Tea Party Caucus
- Congressional Constitution Caucus
- Working Group on Judicial Accountability
- Working Group on Waste, Fraud and Abuse
Legislation sponsored
- On April 9, 2013, Franks introduced the Keep the Promise Act of 2013 (H.R. 1410; 113th Congress). If enacted, the bill would prevent the Arizona Native American tribe Tohono O'odham from building a planned casino in the Phoenix metropolitan area.
- On July 14, 2017, Franks introduced Amendment No. 13 to the National Defense Authorization Act of 2018. The amendment called for a database surveying American Muslim leaders in order to identify violent and "unorthodox" strains of Islam. Critics of the amendment, including, most notably, Minnesota Democratic congressman Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to the United States Congress, repudiated the amendment as an attempt to subject one religion to special scrutiny. Franks rejected the charge by acknowledging that radical Islamist groups victimize Muslims more than any other religious group. Ultimately, the amendment was defeated 217-208, with 27 House Republicans joining all the House Democrats in voting in opposition.
Sexual harassment scandal and resignation
On December 7, 2017, the House Ethics Committee announced that it would create a special investigative subcommittee to determine if Franks had engaged in "conduct that constitutes sexual harassment and/or retaliation for opposing sexual harassment." According to reports, Franks repeatedly asked at least two female staff members if they would consider serving as surrogate mothers for Franks and his wife, offering to compensate at least one staff member $5 million if she conceived him a child and allegedly retaliating against one of the staff members for refusing his offer. Upon being briefed on the allegations, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan found them to be "serious and requiring action" and, after confronting Franks, determined that the allegations, "which he did not deny"--warranted a referral to the House Ethics Committee. Ryan called the allegations "credible claims of misconduct."
In a statement, Franks detailed his struggle with infertility, and said, "Due to my familiarity and experience with the process of surrogacy, I clearly became insensitive as to how the discussion of such an intensely personal topic might affect others." He wrote, "I have absolutely never physically intimidated, coerced, or had, or attempted to have, any sexual contact with any member of my congressional staff," but said he would resign effective January 31, 2018, because of the "collective focus on a very important problem of justice and sexual impropriety" and he was "deeply convinced I would be unable to complete a fair House Ethics investigation before distorted and sensationalized versions of this story would put me, my family, my staff, and my noble colleagues in the House of Representatives through hyperbolized public excoriation."
The following day, Franks's wife was admitted to the hospital "due to an ongoing ailment", and Franks decided to resign effective immediately.
A week after Franks' resignation, Melissa Richmond wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post accusing him of rescinding an offer to intern at his office after she declined to come over to his house on a Sunday night when his wife was not present. Franks denied this allegation.
Electoral history
Personal life
Franks and his wife, Josephine, have been married since 1980; they are members of the North Phoenix Baptist Church. Franks' wife, Josephine, is an immigrant. In August 2008, a donor egg and surrogate were used to give birth to their twins, Joshua Lane and Emily Grace.
Franks is a past chairman of the Children's Hope Scholarship Foundation.
References
External links
- Trent Franks for Congress
- Trent Franks at Curlie (based on DMOZ)
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
- Profile at Project Vote Smart
- Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
- Legislation sponsored at the Library of Congress
Source of article : Wikipedia
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