Trent Franks

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Trent Franks
Trent Franks
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Arizona's 2nd district
Incumbent
Assumed office 
January 3, 2003
Preceded by Ed Pastor
Born June 19, 1957 (1957-06-19) (age 50)
Uravan, Colorado
Political party Republican
Spouse Josephine Franks
Religion Baptist

Trent Franks (born June 19, 1957), American politician, has been a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives since 2003, representing Arizona's 2nd congressional district (map). The district takes in the entire northwestern corner of the state, including Kingman and Lake Havasu City, but most of its vote is cast in the Phoenix suburbs. Franks has been married to Josephine since 1980. They are members of the Baptist Church.

He was born in Uravan, Colorado, a company town. Franks is a former member of the Arizona House of Representatives. While in the House, he served as vice-chairman of the House Commerce Committee and Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Child Protection and Family Preservation.

In January of 1987, Franks was appointed by the Governor 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.

Franks served four and a half years as the Executive Director of the Arizona Family Research Institute, a nonprofit organization associated with James Dobson's Focus on the Family for the purpose of advocating public policy to protect children and families in Arizona. As executive director, he authored a bill to give a state income tax credit to help pay for private school tuition. He was also president of Liberty Petroleum Corporation, a small oil exploration company.

When 3rd District Congressman Bob Stump decided to retire after 13 terms, Franks entered the race to succeed him. The district had been renumbered the 2nd after redistricting gave Arizona two additional seats. He defeated Stump's chief of staff, Lisa Atkins, whom Stump had endorsed as his successor. In 2004, he faced unusually strong primary competition from the more moderate Rick Murphy, but defeated him winning 65% of the primary vote, setting him on track for reelection.

Trent Franks is currently Chairman of the Children's Hope Scholarship Foundation and a Republican Member of The United States Congress. He serves on the Judiciary Committee and the Armed Services Committee. Franks is also a member of the Republican Study Committee, House Working Group on Judicial Accountability, House Working Group on Waste, Fraud and Abuse, the Congressional Hispanic Conference, the Republican Liberty Caucus, the DUI Caucus, the Human Rights Caucus, the India Caucus, the Refugee Caucus, and the Education Freedom Caucus. Franks has also been active with Operation Smile.

Mr. Franks has a 100% rating from the Club for Growth.[citation needed]

[edit] Committee Assignments

  • Armed Services Committee
    • Subcommittee on Strategic Forces
  • Judiciary Committee
    • Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties (Ranking Member)
    • Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law

[edit] Trivia

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The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • One of Franks' colleagues in Congress is John Shadegg, who defeated Franks in the primary for the 4th District in 1994.

[edit] Electoral history

Arizona's 2nd congressional district: Results 2002–2006[1]
Year Democrat Votes Pct Republican Votes Pct 3rd Party Party Votes Pct
2002 Randy Camacho 61,217 37% Trent Franks 100,359 60% Edward Carlson Libertarian 5,919 4% *
2004 Randy Camacho 107,406 38% Trent Franks 165,260 59% Powell Gammill Libertarian 6,625 2% *
2006 John Thrasher 89,671 39% Trent Franks 135,150 59% Powell Gammill Libertarian 5,734 2% *
*Write-in and minor candidate notes: In 2002, William Crum received 7 votes. In 2004, write-ins received 12 votes. In 2006, write-ins received 5 votes.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Election Statistics. Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives. Retrieved on 2008-01-10.

[edit] External links

United States House of Representatives
Preceded by
Ed Pastor		 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Arizona's 2nd congressional district
2003 – present		 Incumbent
v • d • e
Arizona's current delegation to the United States Congress
Senators
Representative(s)
Rick Renzi (R), Trent Franks (R), John Shadegg (R), Ed Pastor (D), Harry Mitchell (D), Jeff Flake (R), Raúl Grijalva (D), Gabrielle Giffords (D)
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