Trent Franks

Harold Trent Franks (born June 19, 1957) is an American businessman and former politician who served as the U.S. representative for Arizona's 8th congressional district from 2003 to 2017 (numbered as the 2nd district from 2003 to 2013).

He is a member of the Republican Party.

During his tenure, Franks served as vice chairman of the United States House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces and chairman of the United States House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.

Franks was born in Uravan, Colorado, a uranium mining 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.

Franks graduated from Briggsdale High School in Colorado in 1976.

He moved to Arizona in 1981, where he continued to drill wells.

In 1984, while working as an engineer for an oil and gas royalty-purchasing firm, Franks began his political career by running in a heavily Democratic district for a seat in the Arizona House of Representatives, against incumbent Democrat Glenn Davis.

Franks campaigned on a conservative "Reagan Republican" platform emphasizing stronger child protection laws as well as the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

He narrowly won the election by 155 votes amid that year's massive national Republican wave.

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.

In 1987, he completed a course of study at the non-accredited Utah's National Center for Constitutional Studies, formerly known as the Freemen Institute.

In January 1987, he was appointed by Republican Governor Evan Mecham to head the Arizona Governor's Office for Children, a cabinet-level division of the governor's office responsible for overseeing and coordinating state policy and programs for Arizona's children.

Franks then founded the Arizona Family Research Institute, a nonprofit organization affiliated with Focus on the Family.

He was the executive director of the organization for four and a half years.

He was successful in the Republican primary but lost in the November general election.

In November 1988, Franks ran again for a legislative seat, moving to District 18 shortly before the filing deadline.

He lost that election.

For one year, from 1989 to 1990, he attended the Arizona campus of Ottawa University.

After high school, Franks bought a drilling rig and moved to Texas to drill wells with his best friend and his younger brother.

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 to "protect most preborn children in Arizona from abortion on demand".

The initiative lost, getting about 35 percent of the votes cast.

Franks ran for AZ'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%.

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.

That effort was also unsuccessful.

Later that year, Franks, became the original author and leading proponent of the successful passage of the Tuition Tax Credit Bill in Arizona.

The initiative was not one of those appearing on the ballot in 1996.

In 1997, Trent Franks, along with his brother, Lane Franks, founded Liberty Petroleum Corporation, a petroleum exploration company.

That year, Franks also worked as a consultant and surrogate speaker for conservative activist Pat Buchanan's presidential campaign.

Following the 2000 census, Arizona got two additional seats.

Franks' home in Glendale was drawn into the 2nd district.

He won the November 2002 general election, defeating Democrat Randy Camacho, 60–37%.

Franks faced competition in the Republican primary from the more moderate businessman Rick Murphy.

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.