Gary Franks

Gary Alvin Franks 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. He currently hosts a podcast called We Speak Frankly, with his son Gary. He also writes for the Boston Herald.