FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 1, 2011
CONTACT: Ben Carnes
April 1, 2011 – Congressman Trent Franks (AZ-02) today released the following statement addressing the possibility of running for Senator Jon Kyl’s Senate seat:
“For three weeks, there have been numerous press accounts regarding the possibility that I might enter the race for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated in 2012 by Arizona’s venerable Senator, Jon Kyl. Indeed, I have made no secret about the fact that I was very actively considering the possibility and leaning strongly in the direction of running.
“A decision like this is among the most complicated a man can ever make. One has a duty to measure how to best serve his God, his country, and his loved ones. There is a complex array of factors that must coincide within the right timeframe in order to prudently move forward with such an undertaking.
“After diligently and prayerfully trying to consider every aspect a potential Senate bid would entail, I have sincerely concluded that mounting a Senate bid at this time would not be what is best for my family, nor what would best allow me to serve my country at this critical time in her history.
“It is the nature of Congress that tenure and experience allow Members to have a greater impact than perhaps they were able to have when they first arrived in D.C. To that end, after the Republican takeover of the U.S. House in the last election, I now have the distinct honor of serving as Chairman of the Constitution Subcommittee, in addition to my roles on the Armed Services and Judiciary Committees and the Strategic Forces Subcommittee; as well as my positions of leadership on numerous vital caucuses, including the EMP Caucus, the Missile Defense Caucus, the International Religious Freedom Caucus, and the Israel Allies Caucus.
“Considering certain critical bills being debated in the house along with ongoing and recent developments in the world, and the overall direction our country is taking, along with my tenure and committee assignments, I believe I can best serve my country at this time by remaining in and running for reelection to the U.S House of Representatives.
“In announcing this decision, I cannot begin to fully relate the abiding gratitude in my heart for absolutely everyone who came together to help and support me. I will never forget their commitment to their country or their kindness to me. And I ask for their continued prayers as, over the next two years, I continue to focus on the same the same issues of national security, border security, free enterprise economic growth, and protecting the constitutional rights of life, liberty, and property for all Americans that I pray have marked and will continue to mark my public service career.
“I am grateful to God, to my family, and to those who have supported me for so long for that profound privilege.”
Congressman Franks is serving his fifth term in the U.S. House of Representatives and is a member of the Judiciary Committee, where he serves as Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Constitution and a member of the Subcommittee on Courts, Commercial and Administrative Law. He is also a member of the Armed Services Committee, where he serves on the Strategic Forces Subcommittee and the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities.
Congressman Franks is indeed a class act.
He did not dally with making his decision and now a door is held open for someone else to challenge Congressman Flake for Kyl’s Senate seat.
Lord knows, we need someone of good character and political caliber to step up.
btw, that would exclude Jim Deakin. (You decide which reason best applies.)
Anywho, I feel like Diogenese searching for an honest man to run for Arizona Senate!
Anybody but Flake!
Flake supports illegal immigration.
Flake supports normalizing relations with communist dictators like Fidel Castro.
Flake voted to destroy our military by allowing people living openly gay lifestyles to serve in the military openly.
JEFF FLAKE IS NOT A CONSERVATIVE!
That is too bad. Can’t imagine the turmoil associated with that decision making process. Franks was on a very short list of viable alternatives to run a competitive race against Flake. In the end, I still would have voted for Flake. Difference is now I doubt Flake will need my vote. Not sure that is a good thing.
Congratulations, Senator Flake.
Constantin Querard on Monday to the Yellow Sheet:
“I’ll be running all of the day-to-day stuff. ‘Campaign manager’ is probably the most accurate title.”
Whoops. Maybe next time wait until the potential candidate makes a decision before you announce you’ll be campaign manager.
Funny. I didn’t hear about that.
I would have been thrilled to Have Trent Franks as my U.S. Senator, I am just as proud to have him as my Congressman.
I look forward to voting for Jeff Flake in 2012, and I hope I will have the chance to vote for Trent Franks for Senate in 2016.
I’m curious to see if Flake’s so-far stellar fund-raising will keep any Republicans from running against him. He was out of the gate quickly and picked up a lot of cash in a short amount of time. At this point, it seems like it would be difficult for anyone to compete, save a real super-star in the Republican party.
Steve,
Well said, what an awesome Arizona Senate delegation Flake 2012 and Franks 2016 would be.
That would be a pretty awesome delegation, minus the Jeff Flake part of course.
Very sad.
Very, very sad indeed.
I hope that Russell Pearce now thinks about running. Or I could support Matt Salmon if he acts like he did in Congress when he’s a Senator.
There are others out there too, but Trent Franks was the best conservative alternative to Jeff Flake.
Politics is a very ugly business. I hope we can find a stellar Republican to challenge Flake in the Primary. The more I learn about Flake the less I like him.
Trent,
You made the right move. No guarantee you would have even won the primary and you would have given up a safe House seat. Plus even if you win the primary you start at zero on September 1 against a well funded Democrat. Hope you’re running for the next open Senate seat. Time to get behind Flake.
Not a chance that conservatives will do the bidding of the Republican establishment & mindlessly fall in line behind the amnesty loving Jeff Flake.
They got to trent Franks.
Just like they did to Bruce Ash.
They told him they would pull the rug out from under him
and would never support him for anything else in the future.
Everybody knows ho the :”THEY” are.
But if you want to name names start with Kyl,
Click, McCain and all the other Republican trash
that needs to bbe put to the curb before they take
Arizona down the same path that California has
followed – with the liberal can’t we all get balong crowd.
WE ARE IN A WAR, people. A WAR. It’s us against them.
Your way of life in this State and Country are on the line
against these dirty bird bastards. Wake the f–k up !
Get out there and fight the WAR against this liberal takeover.
Lol WOW thanks for bringing the crazy to the table sir.
Andy Barnard and Steve Calabrese, you two are certainly Repuglicans, not Constitututional Conservatives. With your snide little smiles as your faux conservative candidate smiles so smugly.
Diodigdog is right,
I was there at the Lincoln Day Luncheon, speaking to Trent and many others. The ONLY thing stopping him from announcing that day was the calendar, before April 1st. Had that Luncheon been this Saturday he most assuredly have announced that he was running. I was told as late as Wednesday that he would be announcing on SATURDAY! There was no planned announcement for Friday.
I know the family issue had been resolved well before last Saturday. There is no other explanation based on everthing else I know of the Trent Camp, which is significant. Trent is not one to “Flake out”. that is the perogative of the previously announced amnesty loving ‘other candidate’
I have often said the real danger in the US is NOT the Marxists in the Democrat Party BUT the so-called Progressives in the Republican Party. DAMN these open-borders loving, America destroying libertarian/prpgressives like Flake, Kyl, McCain and (Grant) Woods. Lying crooks all!!
This is indeed a very dark day for liberty and safety in America and Arizona.
So what are you going to do if Flake wins the primary? Not vote for him in the general election?
Wouldn’t that depend on who the alternative is. If it was Gabby Giffords, at least she’s slightly better than Jeff Flake when it comes to border security & illegal immigration.
WE ARE IN A WAR, people. A WAR. It’s us against them.
Your way of life in this State and Country are on the line
against these dirty bird bastards. Wake the f–k up !
Get out there and fight the WAR against this liberal takeover
So, tell me what you really think……….
If Trent Franks let someone talk him out of a senate run, as some loons on this board have suggested, then shame on him, and good for us, the conservative voters. That’s because if Trent is indeed so weak-minded and spineless as to let others sway him in such important decisions, then how would he ever stand up to Harry Reid and Up-Chuck Schumer in Washington?
Good point, but I don’t believe that anything necessarily happened to Trent Franks or anybody may have needed to even talk to him to dissuade him from running.
Maybe we should just take Franks at his word when it comes to this press release on why he decided not to run.
But maybe Franks was making a completely pragmatic decision. For whatever reason, the Club for Growth still loves Jeff Flake & will throw a lot of money at a campaign to get him elected. They had already announced raising over $350,000 for a Flake campaign by March 23.
Maybe Trent Franks had reason to believe that he could get the Club for Growth to not attack him during the Primary since the Club is typically very conservative., but realized that would not happen.
If you look at three of the Club for Growth’s favorite US Senate candidates during the last cycle, they were Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Mike Lee of Utah & Marco Rubio of Florida. The Club for Growth did a marvelous job in helping take out liberals like Arlen Spector in Pennsylvania, Bob Bennett in Utah & Charlie Crist in Florida, in favor of much more conservative candidates.
But Jeff Flake has always been the Club for Growth’s favorite son. They love him unconditionally, because he has always talked about wanting to shrink the size of government.
But the Club for Growth does not care if a candidate it supports is in favor of open borders & amnesty for illegal aliens. The Club for Growth obviously doesn’t care if a candidate supports gays serving openly in the military or if a candidate supports normalizing relations with communist dictators like Fidel Castro.
It was sad to see that two of the first supports of a Jeff Flake candidacy for US Senate happened to be now US Senators Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania & Mike Lee of Utah. Who knows. Maybe they felt like they needed to return a favor for the Club for Growth.
In the end, maybe Trent Franks was hoping that Jim DeMint’s Senate Conservatives Fund would support him to counter the Club for Growth’s support of Jeff Flake, but DeMint decided that he could not make that kind of a commitment & take on the Club for Growth head-on. It would have been a bloodbath of conservative titans. I think that DeMint & Trent Franks would have won in the end, but who knows. Anyway, this is all just speculation. But we know for sure that Jeff Flake does not meet all of the standards that have been set by DeMint’s powerful PAC. I’m just guessing that DeMint was weary about picking a fight so early into the election season, while so many within his own caucus & even some of his own previously endorsed candidates from the last election cycle had already chosen sides in favor of the libertarian & not conservative Jeff Flake.