28 Facts About Trent Franks

Harold Trent Franks was born on June 19,1957 and is an American businessman and former politician who served as the US representative for from 2003 to 2017.

Trent Franks had repeatedly asked two female staffers to bear his children as surrogate mothers, and allegedly offered one of them $5 million to carry his child and retaliated against her when she declined.

Trent 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".

Trent Franks was born in Uravan, Colorado, a uranium mining company town which became a ghost town.

Trent Franks is the son of Juanita and Edward Taylor Trent Franks.

Trent Franks graduated from Briggsdale High School in Colorado in 1976.

Trent Franks 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, Trent 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.

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

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

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

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

In 1992, when Trent 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".

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

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

Trent Franks ran for in 1994, after incumbent US Representative Jon Kyl decided to run for the US Senate.

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

However, after the 2010 census and redistricting, Trent Franks' district was renumbered as the 8th District, and reduced to essentially the Maricopa County portion of the old 2nd.

Trent Franks won his party's election in the Republican primary on August 26,2014.

On November 1,2023, Trent Franks announced he would run in the Republican primary to regain his old seat.

Trent Franks finished in fourth place, and the primary was won by Abraham Hamadeh.

Trent Franks was a member of the Republican Study Committee.

In 2010, Trent Franks voted against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Trent Franks received high approval ratings from the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council.

In 2009, Trent Franks signed a pledge sponsored by Americans for Prosperity promising to vote against any global warming legislation that would raise taxes.

Trent Franks presided over a hearing to ban abortions after 20 weeks in the District of Columbia, in which he did not allow DC's lone delegate and Member of Congress, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, to testify.

Trent Franks has been involved in the founding of a crisis pregnancy center in Tempe, Arizona.

Trent Franks is a past chairman of the Children's Hope Scholarship Foundation.