Robert Franklin (Georgia)

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Robert Franklin

Democratic Party

Elections and appointments

Last election

December 1, 2020

Education

Bachelor's

Morehouse College, 1975

Graduate

Harvard Divinity School, 1978

Ph.D

The University of Chicago, 1985

Personal

Birthplace

Chicago, Ill.

Profession

University professor

Contact

Campaign website

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Personal website

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Robert Franklin (Democratic Party) ran in a special election to the U.S. House to represent Georgia's 5th Congressional District. He lost in the special general runoff election on December 1, 2020.

Franklin completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Robert Franklin was born in Chicago, Illinois. He earned a bachelor's degree from Morehouse College in 1975. He earned a master's degree from Harvard Divinity School in 1978. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1985. Franklin's career experience includes working as a university professor and as a college president. He has been affiliated with the fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha, the fraternity Sigma Pi Phi, and with the Atlanta Rotary Club.

Elections

2020

See also: Georgia's 5th Congressional District special election, 2020

General runoff election

Special general runoff election for U.S. House Georgia District 5

Kwanza Hall defeated Robert Franklin in the special general runoff election for U.S. House Georgia District 5 on December 1, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Kwanza Hall (D)	54.3	13,450
		Robert Franklin (D)	45.7	11,332

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 24,782
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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General election

Special general election for U.S. House Georgia District 5

The following candidates ran in the special general election for U.S. House Georgia District 5 on September 29, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Kwanza Hall (D)	31.7	11,104
✔		Robert Franklin (D)	28.6	9,987
		Mable Thomas (D)	19.1	6,692
		Keisha Sean Waites (D)	12.2	4,255
		Barrington Martin II (D)	5.6	1,944
		Chase Oliver (L)	2.0	712
		Steven Muhammad (Independent)	0.8	282

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 34,976
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Campaign themes

2020

Note: Franklin submitted the above survey responses to Ballotpedia on August 17, 2020.

Note: Franklin submitted the above survey responses to Ballotpedia on August 14, 2020.

Campaign website

Franklin’s campaign website stated the following:

“	Public Health First among the inalienable rights affirmed by our founders is life itself. The COVID-19 pandemic has threatened and continues to take the lives of American citizens due to the inadequacy of the federal public health response. More than six million cases have been confirmed in the U.S., the highest case count in the world; nearly 200K Americans have died. More than 3,600 more Americans died of COVID-19 during the four days of the GOP Convention in August, which is more than died on 9/11 or at Pearl Harbor. And that’s just official fatalities, with “excess deaths” data at least doubling those numbers. The sooner Congress mounts a comprehensive national mitigation and testing program, the more thousands of lives we might save. ​The COVID-19 pandemic is far from the only health threat faced by Americans, but it has shone a spotlight on significant racial, ethnic, and socio-economic disparities in exposures, risks, health services and health outcomes. In fact, Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) like poverty, poor quality education, food insecurity, unstable housing, pollution, toxic stress and violence, unequal healthcare access, and racism are known to contribute to health outcomes more significantly than biology and genetics combined. Achieving health equity is a moral imperative for our nation. Background The U.S. Public Health system holds the mandate to confront global disease, control infectious threats, mitigate other threats to health and to coordinate access to healthcare for the American populace. Largely due to understandings provided by science (e.g. bacteriology and virology), the public health service was formed around 1912 to coordinate public responses to pandemics. Now we are under an administration that ignores science and politicizes responses and guidance provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) forcing local municipalities to implement their own policies regarding testing, isolation, quarantine. COVID-19 Impact Nearly 200K Americans have died during the COVID-19 pandemic. Left unchecked, the number is projected to rise to 300K by the end of the year. Georgia has had one of the highest number of cases in the nation, now over 252K. Cases have increased substantially since early July. The five Georgia counties with the highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases include Fulton, Gwinnett, Cobb, DeKalb, and Hall counties. The unequal impact uncovers the vulnerabilities wrought by unequal, heightened exposures facing so-called “frontline workers,” deficits of protections accompanying economic disadvantage and more limited access to quality healthcare, as well as the underlying, disparate, burden and risks of chronic disease. African Americans, Native Peoples, and Latinos have shouldered a disproportionate burden of cases and deaths. Nationwide, Blacks appear to be dying at rates 2-3 x those of Whites. ​Other Health Disparities Georgia ranks 39th in the nation according to the 2018 Annual Health Rankings and Scores in overall health outcomes. In the past six years, obesity increased by 3% from 28.0% to 31.6% of adults. Since 2012, cancer deaths increased by 3% from 190.5 to 195.5 deaths/100K population. In the past four years, premature deaths increased 10% from 7,624 to 8,391 lost before age 75, per 100,000 population. Georgia has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country; it is estimated that 60% of these pregnancy-related deaths were preventable. In Georgia, non-Hispanic black women die at rates 3.3 times those of non-Hispanic White women. Fulton County is ranked 6th highest among U.S. counties for new HIV diagnoses. The rate of new infections in Atlanta is twice that for Georgia as a whole. ​Policy Proposition and Implementation We must follow medical science, backed by full federal funding and the force of law, to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead of continuing to ignore the persistent inequities of American healthcare, we must face these challenges and resolve their underlying causes. We must mount a federally coordinated, data-driven, nationwide response to check the COVID-19 pandemic, save lives, and get America back to work safe and sound. We expect accurate information and we oppose the politicizing of public health agencies that are supported by tax dollars. We must exercise our personal agency and power by undertaking proven preventive practices such as a universal masking to fight COVID-19. FDA should be able to put in place protections and assure safety and effectiveness of therapies and vaccines without political pressure to subvert usual and customary controls. We support Medicaid expansion in Georgia and the extension of comprehensive coverage for post-partum care for the full year after childbirth. We will advocate to protect and improve the Affordable Care Act. Going forward we will broaden and deepen our conversations about public health from access to healthcare and insurance to achieving and maintaining health equity, with a clear understanding of the social determinants of health. And we will mobilize all the institutions in our community—faith, business, government, and social organizations-- to promote physical, mental, and spiritual health. Education Education holds the key to personal and social transformation. We are all created equal, but education is not distributed equally in the USA today. It is skewed by residential segregation by race and class. All our citizens have a right to gain the tools and resources of a first-rate education to live out their full potential and take a full part in our society. BACKGROUND Public education in America dates to the Massachusetts Bay Colony prior to the founding of the United States. In the 19th century, Horace Mann envisioned education as a tool to lift persons out of poverty and overcome social inequity. The U.S. Department of Education dates back to 1867 as a resource to assist states in building effective school systems. Yet states still largely control their own schools, making for a morass of models and widening educational inequality. More wealth and social advantage enable affluent families to shop more freely for better schools, including private schools, independent schools, magnet schools, charter schools, and homeschooling. IMPACT In 2017, the White-Black gap in 4th - grade reading achievement scores was 26 points and 25 points in 8th grade achievement scores. The White- Hispanic gap in 2017 was 23 points for 4th graders and 19 points for 8th graders. In 2017, the White-Black achievement gap in 4th grade mathematics achievement scores was 25 points in while the White-Hispanic gap was 19 points. For 8th graders, the White-Black achievement gap in 2017 and the White-Hispanic achievement gap was 32 points and 24 points, respectively. Georgia lawmakers cut $950 million from the state’s budget in June 2020 in basic K-12 school funding for the Department of Education. State support for private school vouchers through tax credits and direct state funding faced no budget cuts. Online instruction, due to the pandemic, further disadvantages rural students and poorer students. The Quality Basic Education Act (QBE) was passed in 1985 and went into effect in 1986 to ensure fair financing for schools in Georgia. But it was denied full funding until 2018, leaving the neediest school districts lagging behind for a full generation, and underscoring the need to sustain stronger support for the next generation. POLICY PROPOSITION AND IMPLEMENTATION We need to increase education funding—above and beyond salaries—for programming, technological infrastructure, and pandemic mitigation efforts. We need federal and state governments to pass laws funding education (including post-secondary, vocational, and technical schooling) with a weighted model to work fairly for those in poor and rural areas; provide technology to bridge the digital divide and overcome cyber-segregation deepened by the current pandemic. Racial Justice and Healing Demands for racial justice at last have come front and center in the streets as millions protest the live-video deaths of African Americans at the hands of the police. Three great plagues today—a viral pandemic, an economic implosion, and unjust law enforcement—reveal and sharpen the plight of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). Our government must respond to bring about racial justice and healing across our country. BACKGROUND Notably absent from the original Constitution of the United States were freedoms and rights accorded to anyone but White males, including women and those enslaved. African Americans were counted as three-fifths of a citizen to tilt congressional representation in favor of slave states. This inequality among all to favor a few has continued to infect the full range of American institutions. Now we must acknowledge it, reckon with it, and resolve it justly. IMPACT The median net worth of White households is about 10 times the median net worth of Black households. White-$171,000/Black-$17,600 The median income for Black households is a little less than 60% of that of White households. White -$71,000/Black-$41,000 About six-in-ten Americans (58%) say race relations in the U.S. are generally bad, report Pew Polls. More than four-in-ten (45%) say it is now more acceptable for people to express racist or racially insensitive views. Black people make up a larger share of US Covid-19 deaths. Blacks comprise 13% of population and represent 23% of Covid-19 deaths. About 17% of the Black people who died as a result of harm from police were unarmed, a larger share than any other racial group and about 1.3 times more than the average of 13%. In 2019, 54% of those who died as a result of harm from police and whose race was identified were people of color – including Asian, Black, Hispanic, Native American and Pacific Islander individuals – compared to 50% in 2014. POLICY PROPOSITION AND IMPLEMENTATION The 5th District will partner with the United Way of Greater Atlanta in administering the United for Racial Equity and Healing Fund to back organizations dedicated to tackling the key causes of systemic racism in neighborhoods where most residents are Black and people of color. Voting Rights Voting, the cornerstone of our democracy, is under threat today. Overwhelming evidence shows a coordinated strategy to disenfranchise American citizens by unfairly burdening and blocking their path to the polls, including restrictive voter ID laws and voter registration rules, gerrymandering, purging voter rolls, and disenfranchising former felons. Background Attacks on our voting rights reach back to the founding of the Republic, when propertied White men alone enjoyed the right to vote. It took amendments to the Constitution and 1965 Voting Rights Act to enable women and African Americans to exercise this fundamental right. In 2013, the Supreme Court wrongly decided Shelby County vs. Holder to gut voting rights and turn back the clock to allow southern states to restrict voting without federal oversight by the Justice Department. Impact Seventy percent of Georgia voters purged in 2018 were Black. Across the country, one in 13 Black Americans cannot vote due to disenfranchisement laws. One-third of voters with a disability report difficulty voting. Only 40% of polling places fully accommodate people with disabilities. Across the country, counties with larger minority populations have fewer polling sites and poll workers per voter. Seven counties in Georgia now have only one polling place. The pandemic is worsening election difficulties. 1,688 polling sites across 13 states have closed in the six years since the Shelby vs. Holder decision gutted key voter protections. Georgia has lost 214 polling places since 2015, hitting hardest its 31% African American population and its 9% Latino population. Georgia counties have closed higher percentages of voting locations than any other state in the country, reports the “Democracy Diverted” study. Policy Proposition and Implementation Now is the time to restore full voting rights to all citizens and pass H.R. 4 as the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of 2020. We need to establish fair criteria to determine which states and political subdivisions must obtain federal “preclearance” before changing state and county voting practices. Each voting precinct should provide adequate drop-off boxes for absentee/mail-in ballots. Work and Economic Inclusion All jobs are not equal. Employment prospects for numerous citizens are limited to jobs that offer low pay, no benefits, and limited opportunities for advancement or a career path. Many of these workers now have a name, “essential workers.” If America is to be the land of opportunity, then it is imperative that job creation efforts focus on providing a livable wage that allows people to thrive economically beyond subsistence. Background The commonwealth assumptions that created the United States and informed its original market structures were flawed from the start as many inhabitants of colonial America were considered means of production and excluded from economic prosperity experienced by an elite few. The current pandemic has forced us to question many assumptions about our free market economy and revealed its limitations and biases requiring additional government intervention. Government policy should incentivize the creation of good jobs. Providing good jobs enhances not only the workers but also their employers and the economy overall. Impact Atlanta is number one in the wealth gap. A 2019 report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation shows most metro Atlanta zip codes with the least resources are located along and below I-20. Atlanta ranks lowest in terms of social mobility, increasing the likelihood and incidents of multigenerational poverty. The unemployment rate for Black Americans exceeds that of Whites: White 14.2%, Black 16.7% The poverty rate for Black Americans is more than double that of Whites. White 8.1%, Black 20.8% A larger share of Black Americans lack health insurance compared to Whites. White 5.4%, Black 9.7% Child poverty impacts adult success. The longer children remain poor the lower the likelihood of being successful. Food insecurity and food deserts continue to be an issue for the 5th District. Atlanta is No. 7 among U.S. cities with the lowest percentage of Black homeowners. Whites 73.2%, Blacks 41.1% Black households pay 13% more in property taxes each year than would a White family in a comparable situation. Policy Proposition and Implementation Federal labor laws should mandate wage equity and a livable working wage. OSHA guidelines should include pandemic mitigation efforts in line with CDC guidelines. Workforce development should begin earlier by teaching career and technical skill courses while students are in high school (e.g. Shaw High School East Cleveland, OH). Economic development efforts in the 5th District should require economic equity impact statements before granting corporate tax credits.	”
—Robert Franklin’s campaign website (2020)

See also

2020 Elections

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Government

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External links

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Footnotes

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Georgia's current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators

Jon Ossoff (D)

Raphael Warnock (D)

Representatives

District 1

Earl Carter (R)

District 2

Sanford Bishop (D)

District 3

Brian Jack (R)

District 4

Hank Johnson (D)

District 5

Nikema Williams (D)

District 6

Lucy McBath (D)

District 7

Rich McCormick (R)

District 8

Austin Scott (R)

District 9

Andrew Clyde (R)

District 10

Mike Collins (R)

District 11

Barry Loudermilk (R)

District 12

Rick Allen (R)

District 13

David Scott (D)

District 14

Marjorie Greene (R)

Republican Party (9)

Democratic Party (7)