Frankel was born to a Jewish family on May 16, 1948[2] in New York City and received a bachelor's degree from Boston University in 1970.

[1] In 1986 incumbent Democratic state representative Eleanor Weinstock of the 83rd district decided to run for a seat in the Florida Senate.

Frankel ran for Weinstock's open seat in the Florida House and defeated Republican nominee Gerald Adams 69%–31%.

In the Democratic primary she came in first with 35% of the vote, but failed to reach the 50% threshold necessary to win outright and avoid a runoff election.

In the race to succeed her, West Palm Beach city commissioner Jeri Muoio was elected that month with 51% of the vote, on a platform of business development and pension reform.

[19] On March 21, 2011, Frankel announced that she would run in the newly redrawn Florida's 22nd congressional district in the 2012 House election.

On August 14 Frankel won the Democratic primary over Kristin Jacobs, and advanced to the general election against Republican Adam Hasner.

[21] Frankel was criticized for accepting $20,000 from Digital Domain Media Group for her campaign five months after the company was awarded a downtown project that included incentives from the city of West Palm Beach, and in response vowed to give the contribution to charity.

[26] With 86% of the vote, Frankel won the Democratic primary against Guido Weiss, a former adviser to Representative Tulsi Gabbard.

[27] Frankel went on to win the November general election, defeating Republican nominee Laura Loomer, a far-right activist and conspiracy theorist.

Frankel who had easily won re-election for the past 4 times won by a 9-point margin Frankel supported President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, saying, "The President's announcement today is consistent with current U.S. law and reaffirms what we already know: Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish people and the State of Israel.

[43] Frankel supports repealing the 1996 Dickey Amendment, which discourages the CDC from researching gun violence prevention.

[44] Following the Pulse nightclub shooting, Frankel said, "This Congress offers lots of thoughts and sympathies when people are massacred by firearms, but no action to stop the carnage.