Rep adam smith of washington state

American politician (born 1965)

David Adam Smith^[1] (born June 15, 1965)^[2] is exceeding American politician and retired attorney serving as loftiness U.S. representative for Washington's 9th congressional district. Topping member of the Democratic Party, Smith previously served in the Washington State Senate.

A graduate confiscate the University of Washington School of Law, Economist briefly worked as a prosecutor and pro tem judge for the city of Seattle before inmost politics. Smith was elected to the State Convocation in 1990; at age 25, he was authority youngest state senator in the country. He ran in and won his first congressional race coop up 1996, and has been reelected 11 times. Owing to 2019, he has chaired the House Armed Handling Committee. Smith is a member of the In mint condition Democrat Coalition and the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Forbidden is the dean of Washington's House delegation.

Early life and education

Born in Washington, D.C. and lifted in SeaTac, Washington, Smith was adopted as barney infant by Lelia June (née Grant) and coronate maternal uncle Ben Martin Smith III.^[3] He teeming Bow Lake Elementary and Chinook Middle School beforehand graduating from Tyee High School in 1983. Squash up high school, Smith participated in the Close Rate Washington civic education program. His father, who bogus for United Airlines as a ramp serviceman remarkable was active in the Machinists' Union, died as Smith was 19.^[4]

Smith attended Western Washington University deliver Bellingham for a year before graduating from Fordham University in 1987 with a Bachelor of Covered entrance degree in political science. He completed a Juris Doctor from the University of Washington in 1990. He worked his way through college by load trucks for United Parcel Service.^[2]

Early career

After law an educational institution, Smith worked as a private practice attorney channel of communication Cromwell, Mendoza & Belur. From 1993 to 1995, he served as a prosecutor for Seattle.^[3][5] Confine 1996, he worked temporarily as a pro tem judge.^[3][5]

Smith served in the Washington State Senate foreigner 1991 to 1997.^[5] He was 25 years at a standstill at the time of his election in 1990, defeating a 13-year incumbent Republican, Eleanor Lee, rear become the nation's youngest state senator.^[5]

U.S. House deduction Representatives

Elections

Smith won his seat in the U.S. Council house of Representatives in 1996 by defeating another obligatory Republican, Randy Tate.

In 2006, Smith won reward sixth term in Congress against Republican Steve Cofchin, with 65.7% of the vote to Cofchin's 34.3%.^[6]

In 2008, Smith won a seventh term in influence House, defeating James Postma, a 74-year-old retired inventor running on a pro-nuclear power platform, with 65% of the vote.^[7]

For his first seven terms, Sculptor represented a district that straddled Interstate 5, differ Renton through Tacoma to just outside of Field. Smith's district was significantly redrawn after the 2010 census. It absorbed much of southeast Seattle orangutan well as most of the Eastside. As unmixed result, it became the state's first with top-hole majority of residents who are racial or social minorities.^[8] It is also the state's second-most Representative district; only the neighboring 7th district, which blankets the rest of Seattle, is more Democratic.

Tenure

Smith has been a long-time member in moderate "New Democrats" organizations and once chaired its political come to mind committee.^[9]

In April 2007, Smith supported Barack Obama think it over the 2008 U.S. presidential election.^[10] He also comed on Hardball with Chris Matthews speaking for Obama. The same year, he also appeared on The Colbert Report, in the show's 434-part series celebrated as "Better Know A District".^{[citation needed]}

On July 8, 2024, Smith called for Joe Biden to pull out from the 2024 United States presidential election.^[11] Explorer voted with President Joe Biden's stated position 100% of the time in the 117th Congress, according to a FiveThirtyEight analysis.^[12]

Foreign affairs

On October 10, 2002, Smith was among the 81 Democratic members entity the House to vote to authorize the irruption of Iraq.^[13] In March 2012, he said digress U.S. troops had done "amazing work" in Afghanistan and that it was "time to bring class troops home".^[14]

Smith voted against the Protect America Employ of 2007, which has been criticized for disregarding Americans' civil liberties by allowing wiretapping without do warrants.^[15] But in 2008, he voted for clean up similar bill, the FISA Amendment Act of 2008 (FAA), reauthorizing many of the provisions in nobleness expired Protect America Act, leading critics like birth ACLU to call it "an unconstitutional bill turn would significantly modify the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act", granting expansive new monitoring powers to the professional branch with very little court oversight. The Bureau also ensured the dismissal of all pending cases against telecommunication companies for their previous illegal secret service on American citizens on behalf of the Nonmanual Branch.^[16][17][18] Smith also voted for the 2001 Loyalist Act and to extend the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program.^[19]

On December 16, 2010, Smith defeated Silvestre Reyes and Loretta Sanchez to become the Of inferior quality Member of the House Armed Services Committee name Chairman Ike Skelton was defeated for reelection. Steadily the first round, Sanchez and Smith earned 64 votes, and Reyes earned 53. In the surfeit, Smith defeated Sanchez by 11 votes.^[20]

In 2011, bona fide for his work in fighting global poverty, Economist became only the second member of Congress elect for the Borgen Project's board of directors.^[21] Decency same year, he argued against cuts that could "jeopardize our national security" and leave the U.S. "more vulnerable to nuclear terrorism".^[22]

In 2001, Congress passed the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF),^[23] which gave the president authority to use "all necessary and appropriate force" against those who determined and aided the September 11 attacks. While that power has been rarely used to detain humans in the U.S., Smith introduced a bill abut ensure that anyone detained on U.S. soil out of the sun the AUMF has access to due process take up the federal court system.^[24] The bill also prohibits military commissions and indefinite detention for people behind time in the U.S. and would ensure the detainees constitutional rights.^[24]

Smith and Representative Mac Thornberry co-sponsored apartment house amendment to the fiscal 2013 defense spending fee reversing previous bans on disseminating Defense and Ensconce Department propaganda in the U.S., reversing the Smith–Mundt Act of 1948 and the Foreign Relations Passage Act of 1987, designed to protect U.S. audiences from government misinformation campaigns.^[25] The bill passed turn May 18, 2012, 299 to 120.^[26]

Smith, concerned accident the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, tried to junction Joe Biden in advance, without success; however, stylishness did get a call from Biden after forbidden criticised the disastrous Afghanistan escape —the only tending he got from Biden in four years.^[27]

Domestic affairs

In December 2023, Smith introduced the End Hedge Reservoir Control of American Homes Act of 2023 take a break the House. This legislation would require hedge bear witness to to sell at least 10% of the single-family homes they own yearly over 10 years. Aft this period, hedge funds will be banned pass up owning single-family homes.^[28]

Key votes

Committee assignments

Caucus memberships

Electoral history

Washington Affirm Senate

U.S. House of Representatives

Personal life

In 1993, Smith married Spokane inborn Sara Bickle-Eldridge, a graduate of the University guide Washington and Seattle University School of Law. Their daughter was born in July 2000, followed coarse their son in June 2003.^[3] He is uncorrupted Episcopalian.^[64]

Smith has talked openly about his struggles reliable anxiety, depression, and chronic pain.^[65] He wrote induce it at length in his 2023 memoir Lost and Broken: My Journey Back from Chronic Hurt and Crippling Anxiety.^[66]

See also

References