Character Application and Information Sheet
NS Nation Name: New Provenance
Character Name: Francis "Frank" Harding
Character Gender: Male
Character Age: 62 years
Character Height: 5'9
Character Weight: 189.7 lbs
Character Position/Role/Job: United States Congressman from California, Representative for the 17th Congressional District (D-CA-17), Chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology
Character Country/State of Birth: Santa Clara, Santa Clara County, California, United States of America
Character State of Residence: State of California
Character Party Affiliation: Democratic Party
Main Strengths:
- Compared to other politicians, Harding is relatively younger at only 62 years old in 2021. His mix of youth and strong experience, having entered politics at 47, has secured him long-time support among voters as well as sponsors, particularly in the tech industry.
- Harding's natural charm and charisma, which he harnessed as a teenager during his high school years as class president, has enabled him to prove effective in passing legislation which he supports
- A radically liberal progressive, Harding voiced strong support for the proliferation of internet use in the early 2000s, making him one of the key supporters of the internet revolution.
- His grandfather, Peter Harding, previously served as a California Senator, and his great-grandfather on his mother's side served as the Representative for California's Congressional District 16, giving his family name some reputation on the political scene
Main Weaknesses:
- Harding's youth and radical progressive agenda has resulted in some small yet substantial opposition from the conservative portion of the Democratic Party
- Being born into a wealthy Santa Clara family, Harding has had trouble portraying himself to the public as a down-to-earth, ordinary American, with some going as far as portraying him as elitist
- Harding's support for economic deregulation in the early 2000s has led to a damage in his popularity due to critics calling him, potentially rightly so, as one of the instigators of economic downturn caused by deregulation
Biography:
Francis Jameson Harding was born in Santa Clara, California on June 13, 1959 to Alan Peter Harding and Miriam Grace Jameson Harding. Born into a wealthy Santa Clara family in the midst of the Cold War, Harding attended elite private schools during his childhood. His father, a failed politician but a locally famous nuclear physicist, worked at Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant 100 kilometers away, in San Luis Obispo County. As a result of the long distance between the plant and the Harding home in Santa Clara, Francis's father usually left home early in the morning and arrived late in the evening. With the lack of a regularly present father figure, Harding molded his ideals based on his mother's personality and beliefs.
Miriam Grace Jameson Harding, called Grace by those close to her, was a devout and practicing Roman Catholic. Born into a middle-class family in Fresno, she married Francis's father in 1957. Grace Jameson had excelled in her studies, scoring high on assessments and going on to become valedictorian of her class following her graduation from high school. She instilled in her eldest son Francis a respect for education and a burning curiosity for more knowledge. As a result of this Francis, who had by now adopted the nickname 'Frank' in grade school, became a wide reader and a highly respected student by his teachers.
However, as he progressed through high school and the burden of schoolwork placed pressure on him, he slowly started distancing himself from his mother and his former love for knowledge and education. Frank Harding graduated from Santa Clara High School in 1975. During his high school years he had cultivated within himself a charming and charismatic personality thanks to his long-term tenure as class president and thus a member of the student government. During his high school years Harding had immersed himself in student politics and actual politics, regularly buying newspapers and watching on television for updates on the jungle of American politics. It was here where he first considered a career in politics.
Equipped with charisma and charm, as well as significant knowledge of politics, he first applied to become an intern on Gerald R. Ford's Republican presidential campaign ahead of the 1976 elections but got rejected due to his status as a member of a rich Santa Clara family. The Ford campaign had wanted to portray itself as a down-to-earth, ordinary administration. After some hesitation from his father, who was pro-Republican, Frank Harding successfully applied for an internship with Jimmy Carter's Democratic presidential campaign. During the Carter 1976 campaign, he travelled the country with the campaign, helping here and there and helping to portray the Carter campaign as one for the youth of America.
The experience in 1976, which Frank would go on to call 'the most important turning point in my life', led to Frank's joining of the Democratic Party in 1977, again to the hesitation of his pro-Republican father. Harding returned home to Santa Clara and opened a small business to sell televisions. This business, also a formative period of Harding's life, taught him valuable life lessons and gave him experience on how to handle money and how to manage a business. The business ended up closing in 1981, when Harding decided to run, successfully, for the Santa Clara City Council. He won a seat on the Council during the 1982 elections and garnered support locally during his term as a council member as a progressive, hands-on politician with a charismatic personality and aura.
Frank only decided to go to college in 1989, resigning from his post as a council member with a strong and solid reputation in the Silicon Valley area. He majored in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT and went on to work at Microsoft from 1995 to 2006. In February of 2006, after attending several California Democratic Party rallies in the past few months, Harding resigned from his post as a high-ranking business executive at Microsoft and announced a bid for the post of United States Representative of the 17th Congressional District of California, which encompassed most of Silicon Valley.
With a strong reputation for being progressive and pro-technology in the technology-dominated 17th District and a reputation as a hands-on politician among the public, at least among those who remembered his term as a Santa Clara council member from 1982 to 1989, Francis Harding launched his campaign for the House of Representatives, 17th Congressional District. With financial support from his family, friends and donors, the Harding campaign launched in March of 2006 as a Democrat with two high-profile politicians who had previously served with the Carter 1976 campaign and had befriended Harding now acting as chief campaign advisors.
He campaigned on a platform of supporting liberal economic and executive policies, deregulation of the economy and increased tax breaks for the United States as a whole but the 17th District in particular. He used his youth and already-established name and reputation in Silicon Valley to his advantage, asserting that he represented the new generation of America and the new ideals of America. He spoke for those lost in the rapid wave of the internet revolution as well as for technology and dot-com companies struggling to gain the trust of the world. He cited repeatedly the dot-com bubble, which led to an economic recession in the late 1990s and the early 2000s due to a mistrust in dot-com, or internet based companies. He campaigned on a platform of preventing future crashes, stating firmly that 'tech has proven its place in the world'. He stated that most families already used computers, did they not? Ownership of personal computers by itself signified trust in technology. "We just need to find that trust and believe in it." Harding had stated in a speech which went national on newspapers all over the country.
On Election Day, Francis Harding narrowly won the seat for the 17th Congressional District of California, winning him a seat in the House of Representatives. His victory had been hard-won. Money had been spent and days and nights expended in an effort to win the vote, and Harding did just that.
In Congress, Harding rose through the ranks of the Democratic Party, and in 2012 he became the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space and Technology. His tenure as Congressman is characterized mainly by radically liberal progressivism, centrism, and a willingness to compromise with others to achieve at least part of his agenda. He pushed strongly and advocated for government support for the growing technology and computer industry, as well as the expansion of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's low earth orbit (LEO) research efforts.
Harding won re-election during the 2020 election and continues to serve as Chairman of the Committee on Science, Space and Technology and Representative of the 17th Congressional District of California.
Frank Harding married Laura Hill, a senior engineer at Microsoft, in 1999. He has four children, namely James, Lily, Anna and Clark, with the eldest being born in 2005.
Other Info:
Policy stances:
Economy: Supports liberal deregulation of the economy and increased and more frequent tax breaks directed at lower-income families.
Gun control: Strongly supportive of increased gun control, is extremely critical of pro-gun laws.
Abortion: Quiet supporter of full abortion legalization but is careful about interacting with the issue.
Foreign policy: Extremely hawkish in relation to China, strong supporter of stronger relations with East Asian countries like the Philippines, Japan, Australia, and South Korea.
Black Lives Matter: Strong supporter of the BLM movement.
Education: Supporter of educational reform and a refocusing of education on STEM subjects. Actively seeks to reform education in such a way to reduce the impact of bad grades on students mentally.
I have read and accept the rules of the roleplay: New Provenance
Do Not Remove: DRAFT87421
