Al Franken

Al Franken
Official portrait, 2015
United States Senator from Minnesota
In office July 7, 2009[a] – January 2, 2018
Preceded by	Norm Coleman
Succeeded by	Tina Smith
Personal details
Born	Alan Stuart Franken (1951-05-21) May 21, 1951 (age 73) New York City, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Franni Bryson ​ (m. 1975)​
Children	2
Education	Harvard University (BA)
Signature
Franken's voice Reading "Operation Chickenhawk", a chapter from his book Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations (1996)

Alan Stuart Franken (born May 21, 1951) is an American politician and comedian who served as a United States senator from Minnesota from 2009 to 2018. He first gained fame as a writer and performer on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live, where he worked for three stints. He first served as a writer for the show from 1975 to 1980, and returned from 1985 to 1995 as a writer and, briefly, a cast member. After decades as an entertainer, he became a prominent liberal political activist, hosting The Al Franken Show on Air America Radio.

Franken was elected to the United States Senate in 2008 as the nominee of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL, an affiliate of the Democratic Party), defeating incumbent Republican Senator Norm Coleman by 312 votes out of nearly three million cast (a margin of just over 0.01%) in one of the closest elections in the history of the Senate. He was reelected in 2014 with 53.2% of the vote over Republican challenger Mike McFadden. Franken resigned on January 2, 2018, after allegations of sexual misconduct were made against him.

In September 2019, Franken announced he would be hosting The Al Franken Show on Saturday mornings on SiriusXM radio. It covers global affairs, politics, and entertainment.^[1]

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