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Biography · Politics & Public Life

Gary Franks

1953–

United States

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Biography

Gary Alvin Franks (born February 9, 1953) is an American politician who was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Connecticut for six years, from 1991 until 1997. He is the first African-American elected to the U.S. Congress from Connecticut, the first modern black conservative elected to the House of Representatives, and the first black Republican elected since Oscar De Priest's re-election in 1932. Franks ran for the United States Senate in 1998, losing to incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Chris Dodd in a landslide.

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Biography text · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source checked 2026-10-13

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