Frank Burns (Delaware)
Frank Burns (Democratic Party) is a member of the Delaware House of Representatives, representing District 21. He assumed office on November 6, 2024. His current term ends on November 3, 2026.
Burns (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Delaware House of Representatives to represent District 21. He won in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Burns completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Frank Burns was born in Chicago, Illinois. Burns' career experience includes working as a scientist. He earned a bachelor's degree from Villanova University in 1981 and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1986.[1]
Burns has been affiliated with the following organizations:[1]
- Sierra Club
- Mom's Demand Action
- People for Offshore Wind Energy Resources
- RespondDE
- American Society for Microbiology
Sponsored legislation
The following table lists bills this person sponsored as a legislator, according to BillTrack50 and sorted by action history. Bills are sorted by the date of their last action. The following list may not be comprehensive. To see all bills this legislator sponsored, click on the legislator's name in the title of the table.
Elections
2024
See also: Delaware House of Representatives elections, 2024
General election
General election for Delaware House of Representatives District 21
Frank Burns defeated Brenda Mennella in the general election for Delaware House of Representatives District 21 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Frank Burns (D)  | 57.9 | 7,415 |
 | Brenda Mennella (R) | 42.1 | 5,397 | |
| Total votes: 12,812 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Delaware House of Representatives District 21
Frank Burns defeated Michael A. Smith in the Democratic primary for Delaware House of Representatives District 21 on September 10, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Frank Burns | 50.7 | 1,142 |
 | Michael A. Smith | 49.3 | 1,112 | |
| Total votes: 2,254 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Republican primary election
The Republican primary election was canceled. Brenda Mennella advanced from the Republican primary for Delaware House of Representatives District 21.
Endorsements
Burns received the following endorsements.
2022
See also: Delaware House of Representatives elections, 2022
General election
General election for Delaware House of Representatives District 21
Incumbent Michael Ramone defeated Frank Burns in the general election for Delaware House of Representatives District 21 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Michael Ramone (R) | 50.2 | 4,381 |
| Frank Burns (D) | 49.8 | 4,346 | |
| Total votes: 8,727 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Democratic primary election
The Democratic primary election was canceled. Frank Burns advanced from the Democratic primary for Delaware House of Representatives District 21.
Republican primary election
The Republican primary election was canceled. Incumbent Michael Ramone advanced from the Republican primary for Delaware House of Representatives District 21.
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Frank Burns completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Burns' responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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- Giving back to my community is a passion. During the COVID pandemic I volunteered with RespondDE (the Delaware reserve medical corps) to staff testing and vaccination sites so we could keep our essential services running. A longtime volunteer with the Food Bank of Delaware, I regularly organize mobile food pantry distributions in our community. I also serve on the Board of Directors at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Mill Creek. - I grew up in a working poor household and was the first generation in my family to attend college which I was able to do when Villanova University offered to fund the National Merit Scholarship I had been awarded. That with working, loans, a Basic Educational Opportunity Grant (now renamed Pell Grants) allowed me to attend college. The National Institutes of Health then awarded me a pre-doctoral fellowship that enabled me to obtain my PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School.
- I was a medical school professor for over a decade and then in 2003 I joined a small Biotech company (Qualicon) in Wilmington that was subsequently acquired by DuPont. In 2019 I formed a biotech company focused on beneficial microbes with the mission to "Unblock the potential of the microbial universe to benefit humanity". We work on novel probiotics and microbes that can break down chemical pollutants.- Delaware's future depends on a well-functioning educational system. We have to do better. We need to provide adequate and equitable funding so all Delaware students can thrive, provide universal Pre-K education, and address student behavior issues by providing increased professional and paraprofessionals staffing adequate to help students who have difficulty controlling their behavior. Classroom success is intimately tied to a student's physical, and emotional well-being. Breakfast and lunch should be provided without means testing. Feeling stigma for being poor is no fun, I've lived it. Situations at home can also change quickly and not all with the means provide well for their children. Let's set our students up for success!
- Delaware deserves a future built on industries that won't destroy our environment. Green energy generation and storage as well as biologically based business are two such industries that I have worked for over a decade promoting here in Delaware.
- Affordable housing is key to keeping and attracting workers. We face workforce shortages across a wide variety of essential positions, (teachers, police, nurses etc.) The lack of affordable housing drives people out of state and drives up the costs of filling those positions. No one should work for less than a livable wage, and as our housing costs skyrocket, what constitutes a livable wage in Delaware also rises. Trying to cover the shortages with overtime and/or constantly increasing their workload drives workers out of their profession or out of state. Housing is a key underlying issue impacting multiple aspects of life here in Delaware.
Pro-choice, we own our own bodies, reproductive, end of life choices, who we choose to marry and how we identify ourselves should be only our business. Currently we have rights protected by state law that need to be raised to state constitutional levels of protection. Ohio wasn't always a red state, and we need to safeguard these rights so they cannot be easily stripped away from Delawareans in the future.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
2022
Frank Burns completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Burns' responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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- I am Pro-Choice. I believe ownership of one's own body is the most fundamental right.
- I am Pro-Worker. I believe that a living wage and corresponding benefits are the right of every full time worker. I support strong unions as a primary means of strengthening the middle class and achieving a fairer distribution of wealth in our society.
- I am Pro-future. We need to look beyond our immediate horizon. Everything from climate change to emerging diseases presents us with challenges and opportunities. We need to be drivers, not road kill, on the road to the future.
I am passionate about self ownership and bodily autonomy.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
Scorecards
A scorecard evaluates a legislator’s voting record. Its purpose is to inform voters about the legislator’s political positions. Because scorecards have varying purposes and methodologies, each report should be considered on its own merits. For example, an advocacy group’s scorecard may assess a legislator’s voting record on one issue while a state newspaper’s scorecard may evaluate the voting record in its entirety.
Ballotpedia is in the process of developing an encyclopedic list of published scorecards. Some states have a limited number of available scorecards or scorecards produced only by select groups. It is Ballotpedia’s goal to incorporate all available scorecards regardless of ideology or number.
Click here for an overview of legislative scorecards in all 50 states. To contribute to the list of Delaware scorecards, email suggestions to editor@ballotpedia.org.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
|
Candidate Delaware House of Representatives District 21 |
Officeholder Delaware House of Representatives District 21 |
Personal |
Footnotes
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Michael Ramone (R) |
Delaware House of Representatives District 21 2024-Present |
Succeeded by - |
