Rep. Trent Franks (R)

The congressman from the 2nd District is Trent Franks, a Republican first elected in 2002. He grew up in Colorado, attended college only briefly, and started his own oil-and-gas exploration business. His political career began when he won a single term in the Arizona House in 1984. There, he was known for wearing a tie tack in the shape of the feet of a fetus, as a constant reminder of his anti-abortion-rights views. In 1987, he was the director of the Governor’s Office for Children under Evan Mecham, a conservative Republican who was later impeached. In 1989, he became executive director of the Arizona Family Research Institute, an organization associated with James Dobson’s Focus on the Family, and he was a consultant to conservative Pat Buchanan’s presidential campaign. Franks sought unsuccessfully for a 1992 ballot initiative to limit abortion rights. He designed the state’s 1997 scholarship tax credit legislation, a much-litigated measure that ultimately was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. The plan provides tax credits for donations to nonprofit organizations to help families pay for private education. In 1994, he ran for an open U.S. House seat but lost to John Shadegg in the Republican primary, 43%-30%.

In 2002, Republican Rep. Bob Stump announced he was retiring and endorsed Lisa Atkins, his chief of staff throughout his 26-year congressional career. When the campaign started, Franks was not in the top tier of candidates. But his base of Christian conservatives and abortion opponents, plus an infusion into his campaign of $300,000 of his own money, made him a contender. Franks spent heavily on radio ads, and he benefited from the distribution of a voter guide by the Center for Arizona Policy, which described itself as “the only organization in Arizona actively fighting in the Legislature and media for conservative, traditional views on gambling, homosexuality, and pornography.” Franks called for overturning the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion, and for constitutional protection for fetuses. He endorsed a flat tax as a step toward eliminating the federal income tax, supported individual investment accounts in Social Security, and called for tougher enforcement of immigration laws. His base of activists made the difference. He finished first with 28% of the vote, only 797 votes ahead of Atkins, who got 26%. In November, he won 60%-37%.

In the House, Franks has a solidly conservative record. He has sought co-sponsors for his Children’s Hope Act, which was based on his 1997 state scholarship tax credit. And he wrote an anti-child-pornography bill. In the 110th Congress (2007-08), he opposed expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, and sought to deny eligibility for the program to illegal immigrants. He proved his outsider stripes by proposing that service on the Appropriations Committee be limited to a maximum of three terms in 10 years. And he said he had no interest in serving on the committee, which controls the government purse strings and is ground zero for earmarks, the special spending provisions inserted into appropriations bills by individual lawmakers. But he succumbed to pressure from Republican leaders and earned their gratitude in December 2003 by switching his vote to support the Medicare prescription drug bill during a tension-filled, three-hour roll-call vote. Many conservatives opposed the massive expansion of the program to pay for prescription drugs for senior citizens.

On the Armed Services Committee, Franks worked to secure $27 million for Arizona to buy land adjacent to Luke Air Force Base in order to curtail housing development, and he worked to locate the new F-35 joint strike fighter planes at Luke. He has strongly supported missile defense and Boeing’s bid to build the new Air Force tanker. From 2007 until 2009, he was the ranking Republican on the Constitution subcommittee of Judiciary where worked to promote building a fence along the U.S. borders to stem illegal immigration. Also in 2007, his amendment to require the Pentagon to inform Congress of weapons provided by Iran to the Taliban passed by voice vote. Franks, who has had multiple surgeries on his cleft palate, has encouraged public awareness of the facial deformity. In 2009, Franks became the ranking Republican on the Commercial and Administrative Law Subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee.

In his first bid for re-election in 2004, Franks faced a competitive primary against Rick Murphy, a free-spending radio station owner, who criticized Franks for supporting the prescription drug bill. Murphy was endorsed by several local Republican officials who complained about their lack of contact with Franks. Murphy also attacked Franks for abandoning his promise not to take money from political action committees. Franks won 64%-36%, a good showing but less than what safe incumbents usually get over primary challengers. He narrowly lost Mohave County, but he took 68% in Maricopa, which cast 76% of the total vote. In November Franks won 59%-39%, a downtick from 2002.

He had no primary opposition in 2006 or 2008, and won both general elections with 59% of the vote. In the early maneuvering for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination, Franks backed Duncan Hunter, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee, as “an unequivocal social conservative and fiscal conservative” over home-state favorite Sen. John McCain of Arizona. In November 2008, he called newly elected President Obama “the most dangerous president the country has ever had.”