Chris Smith

Early life, education, and early career

Smith was born in Rahway, New Jersey, on March 4, 1953. He attended St. Mary's High School in Perth Amboy, where he competed as a runner and wrestler. He graduated from there in 1971.

He attended Worcester College (since renamed University of Worcester) in 1974. In 1975, he earned a B. S. at Trenton State College (since renamed as The College of New Jersey.

After graduating with a B.A. in business administration from Trenton State College (now The College of New Jersey), Smith worked in his family's sporting goods business. In the 1976 election cycle, he managed the Democratic primary challenge of Steven Foley, an attorney and anti-abortion activist, against incumbent Senator Harrison A. Williams; Foley received about 15% of the vote, losing to Williams. He also ran to represent New Jersey's 19th legislative district as a delegate to the 1976 Democratic National Convention. Smith supported Ellen McCormack, the chair of the New York State Right to Life Party, for president of the United States and ran as a delegate pledged to support her candidacy.

In 1978, Smith switched to the Republican Party, and became executive director of the New Jersey Right to Life Committee, a part-time role.

In 1983, he bought a home in Herndon, Virginia, just outside Washington DC. According to an Observer article from 2008, he, “has lived in Virginia for most of that time” he has spent as a congressman. Politico says that Smith’s daughter, “obtained in-state tuition privileges at a prestigious Virginia university”.

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

In 1978, while working at his family's sporting goods store, 25-year-old Smith ran for Congress as a Republican. He lost to long-time Democratic incumbent U.S. Congressman Frank Thompson 61%–37%.

In 1980, Smith ran against Thompson again. Initially, Smith was thought to have a very slim chance of winning, but Thompson was indicted as part of the FBI's Abscam probe. With the race now considered competitive, Republicans considered replacing Smith, but two alternative candidates seen as more competitive, Hamilton mayor John K. Rafferty and 1978 Senate nominee Jeff Bell, declined. Helped by Ronald Reagan's strong performance in the district, Smith defeated Thompson 57%–41%.

In 1982, Smith's district was redrawn to include more Democratic voters, and his Democratic opponent was former New Jersey Senate President Joseph P. Merlino, who had directly controlled the redistricting process and run a competitive campaign for governor the year before. It was widely assumed that Smith's 1980 victory over the scandal-plagued Thompson was a fluke, and that he would lose to the better-known Merlino. At the end of one of their debates, Smith approached Merlino to exchange pleasantries. Merlino was quoted as saying "Beat it, kid."

During the campaign, Merlino ran a negative ad comparing Smith to Jimmy Stewart's character in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. In response, Stewart released a statement endorsing Smith and denouncing the ad: "When I played Mr. Smith in that picture, I did not think he was a naive hick. I thought he believed in honesty and integrity in government, the right of the people and the love of his country." Merlino pulled the ad.

Smith won the race with 52.7% of the vote.

Subsequently, a federal court found the 1982 redistricting was impermissible gerrymandering, and Smith's district was redrawn to more closely resemble the one used in 1980. He has not faced another contest that close since.

Smith ran for a third term and defeated Democratic candidate James C. Hedden in the general election.

Tenure

Smith was ranked the 17th most bipartisan member of the House of Representatives during the 114th United States Congress (and the second most bipartisan from New Jersey) in the Bipartisan Index by the Lugar Center.

In November 1997, Smith was one of 18 House Republicans to co-sponsor a resolution by Bob Barr that sought to launch an impeachment inquiry against President Bill Clinton. The resolution did not specify any charges or allegations. This was an early effort to impeach Clinton, predating the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal. That scandal led to a more serious effort to impeach Clinton in 1998. On October 8, 1998, Smith voted in favor of legislation that was passed to open an impeachment inquiry. On December 19, 1998, he voted in favor of all four proposed articles of impeachment against Clinton (only two of which received the needed majority of votes to be adopted).

It was revealed in October 2015 that intern applicants for Smith's office were required to rate "27 different personalities, organizations, and political issues, to indicate whether they tend to agree with them, disagree with them, or have no opinion or knowledge of them". Personalities and organizations included Rachel Maddow, the Pope, Planned Parenthood, and The National Right to Life Committee.

Smith has been nominated, and confirmed, twice to serve as a member of the United States delegation to the United Nations General Assembly. He was nominated by President Barack Obama in 2015 for the 70th session and by President Donald Trump in 2017 for the 72nd session.

Smith voted against both articles in the first impeachment of Donald Trump, and the sole article of the second impeachment of Donald Trump.

Smith did not join the majority of Republican members of Congress who signed an amicus brief in support of Texas v. Pennsylvania, a lawsuit filed at the United States Supreme Court contesting the results of the 2020 presidential election. Smith voted to certify both Arizona's and Pennsylvania's results in the 2021 United States Electoral College vote count.

On February 4, 2021, Smith voted with 10 other House Republicans and all House Democrats to strip Marjorie Taylor Greene of her House Education and Labor Committee and House Budget Committee assignments, in response to controversial political statements she had made. On November 5, 2021, Smith was one of 13 House Republicans to break with their party and vote with a majority of Democrats in favor of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Committee assignments

Committee on Foreign Affairs

Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights (Ranking member)

Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere

Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission

Congressional-Executive Commission on China

Caucus memberships

Congressional Ukraine Caucus

Republican Main Street Partnership

Republican Governance Group

Problem Solvers Caucus

Rare Disease Caucus

Political positions

Abortion

Smith is strongly anti-abortion. He is a co-chairman of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, and served as co-chair of the Trump administration's Pro-Life Coalition. He supports the Mexico City policy, which blocks U.S. federal funding for non-governmental organizations that provide abortion counseling or referrals, advocate to decriminalize abortion or expand abortion services. In 2000, he voted for the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2000. In December 2023, Smith signed a letter of support to Tommy Tuberville, thanking him for his nine-month hold on more than 400 military promotions over the Pentagon's abortion policy.

Smith expressed support for the Stupak-Pitts Amendment, an amendment to America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009.

Smith has introduced various forms of the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, starting with the original proposal in 2011. The 2011 proposal prohibited federal funds from being used for health benefits that cover abortion, unless in the case of rape, incest, or if the woman could die. It also disqualified abortions from being written off on taxes. In 2013, Smith reintroduced the proposal, which further restricted insurance coverage of abortions. The bill passed the House, but has yet to be voted on by the Senate.

Agriculture

Smith opposes federal efforts to overturn state and local agricultural laws, including laws related to farm animal welfare. In September 2023, Smith was one of 181 representatives who signed a bipartisan letter opposing the inclusion of the Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression (EATS) Act in the 2023 farm bill. The EATS Act would have preempted state and local regulations on the sale of animal products raised in battery cages, gestation crates, and veal crates, including California's Proposition 12. Smith was also one of 16 House Republicans who signed a letter to the House Committee on Agriculture opposing the EATS Act in October 2023. The letter claimed that the legislation would infringe on states' rights and empower foreign-owned agribusinesses like the Chinese-owned pork producer WH Group to exert influence over U.S. agricultural policy.

Domestic violence

Smith voted for the original 1994 Violence Against Women Act, and co-sponsored the reauthorization bills of 2000 and 2005, the latter of which provided $1.6 billion for investigation and prosecution of violent crimes against women, imposed automatic and mandatory restitution on those convicted, and allowed civil redress in cases prosecutors chose to leave un-prosecuted. Smith voted against reauthorizing the act in 2013, due to the Senate version of the bill's cutting of funding for the Trafficking in Persons Office at the State Department, which Smith's Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 created.

Environment

As of 2020, Smith has a lifetime score of 62% on the National Environmental Scorecard of the League of Conservation Voters, the second-highest of any sitting Republican member (after Brian Fitzpatrick). He has said, "Climate change is a global challenge that must be addressed with a global solution."

Smith also opposes offshore drilling, particularly in New Jersey.

Smith backed a carbon emissions trading bill to tackle climate change, one of only eight Republicans in the House to do so.

Smith voted against the Abandoned Shipwrecks Act of 1987. The Act asserts United States title to certain abandoned shipwrecks located on or embedded in submerged lands under state jurisdiction, and transfers title to the respective state, thereby empowering states to manage these cultural and historical resources more efficiently, with the goal of preventing treasure hunters and salvagers from damaging them. Despite his vote against it, President Ronald Reagan signed it into law on April 28, 1988.

Gun control

Smith opposes concealed carry. In 2016, he was one of four Republicans to receive a 100% rating from the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and has generally received low or intermediate ratings from pro-gun organizations Gun Owners of America and the National Rifle Association. Smith did not co-sponsor the Brady Campaign's proposed legislation to expand background checks for gun purchasers.

Smith was one of five Republicans to co-sponsor HR 8 in the 116th Congress, which would require mandatory background checks for gun sales.

Smith called the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting "tragic beyond words", and said, "The terrorist's motive, if linked to radical Islamist ideology, underscores the escalating national and worldwide threat from global jihad."

In the wake of the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, Smith co-sponsored a ban on bump stocks with Leonard Lance.

Health care

Smith has written three major laws to address autism, including the most recent Autism CARES which included $1.3 billion in funding for research, services and supports and requires a report on aging out.

On May 9, 2014, Smith introduced the bill Autism CARES Act of 2014, a bill that would amend the Public Health Service Act to reauthorize research, surveillance, and education activities related to autism spectrum disorders (autism) conducted by various agencies within the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

On May 9, 2019, Smith was one of only three Republicans who voted for HR 986, a measure supported by all voting House Democrats intended to maintain protections of those with preexisting medical conditions to have continued access to affordable medical insurance under the existing provisions of the Affordable Care Act. Five weeks earlier, he had voted with seven other Republicans to pass a resolution condemning the Trump administration's efforts by Department of Justice to have the courts invalidate Obamacare.

Smith has been a longtime promoter of the medically unrecognized "chronic Lyme disease", and has pushed for the medical establishment to recognize the condition. The condition, not to be confused with genuine Lyme disease, is generally rejected by medical professionals, and its promotion is generally seen as health fraud. In 2019, Smith proposed an investigation into whether the Pentagon had released "weaponized" ticks infected with Lyme disease into the environment between 1950 and 1975. Scientists identified this proposal, which Congress did not adopt, as based on a conspiracy theory and claimed that an investigation was unnecessary and a poor use of funds.

Human rights

Smith advocates for human rights, serving on numerous committees that seek to impact both national and international laws and legislation. He has stated that the bills he introduces to the house are meant to make the U.S. take "human rights seriously".

In 1999, Smith proposed, as part of the American Embassy Security Act, to stop a U.S. sponsored program which provided training to Royal Ulster Constabulary with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), due to claims of human rights violations, i. e., harassment of defense attorneys representing republicans in Northern Ireland. However, he voted "no" on a bill that halts arms sales to Saudi Arabia and removes troops from Yemen.

In April, 2006, he held Congressional hearings on the killing of Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo titled "An End to Impunity: Investigation the 1993 killing of [an] Mexican Archbishop."

He supported the return David Goldman's son in the Goldman child abduction case, which involved a trip to Brazil. Smith acknowledges the Armenian genocide, and has made calls for the U.S. to recognize it.

In 2017, Smith co-sponsored an effort to prioritize human rights in Azerbaijan with Jim McGovern. The H. Res. 537 act also seeks to see further implementation of the Magnitsky Act regarding Azerbaijani officials, as well as a call for Azerbaijan to release all political prisoners. He supported efforts to deport Jakiw Palij, a denaturalized former American citizen residing in New York who failed to disclose he worked as a guard at a concentration camp in Nazi Germany. Palij was deported to Germany in 2018 and died in 2019. Smith condemned Turkey's wide-ranging crackdown on dissent following a failed July 2016 coup.

Smith has held congressional hearings and has proposed bills regarding human rights violations, specifically around women's sexual health, activism and religious groups, in China. He staunchly opposes the forced sterilization and forced abortions being implemented by the Chinese government towards women regarding China's one-child policy. Regarding the victimization of these women, Smith stated that "the agony that those women carry with them is beyond words. They talk about the pain that they carry for their child and for the violation by the state." In response, Smith wrote a bill, which was put into law in 1999, making it illegal for the U.S. to issue visas to foreign nationals who have been involved in forced abortion or sterilization.

Immigration

Smith supported the Indonesian Family Refugee Protection Act in 2012, which would have extended the deadline for Indonesian immigrants to file for citizenship.

In 2021, Smith was one of 30 Republicans who voted for the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, which would grant legal status to illegal immigrants working in agriculture and establish a pathway to permanent residency contingent on continued farm work.

Intellectual property rights

Smith authored the Global Online Freedom Act in 2007, but it did not become law. The proposed legislation was a bill "to promote freedom of expression on the Internet, to protect United States businesses from coercion to participate in repression by authoritarian foreign governments, and for other purposes." Specifically, the bill would prohibit American companies from turning over data about customers residing in "internet restrictive countries." The bill is supported by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders. It is opposed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

January 6 commission

On May 19, 2021, Smith was one of 35 Republicans who joined all Democrats in voting to approve legislation to establish the January 6 commission meant to investigate the U.S. Capitol attack.

He was given a C− by Republican Accountability in the organization's Democracy Report Card.

LGBT rights

In 2015, Smith said he did not consider same-sex marriage a fundamental human right as defined by the United Nations.

In July 2022, Smith voted against the Respect for Marriage Act, a bill that required the U.S. federal government to recognize the validity of same-sex marriages.

Labor movement

Smith supports the Employee Free Choice Act. The AFL-CIO Legislative Scorecard, which tracks support for workers' rights, gives Smith a 61% lifetime rating, ranking him seventh of New Jersey's twelve Representatives, and 195th of the House's 435 Representatives.

The AFL-CIO endorsed Smith for re-election in 2018, calling him one of the "best candidates for working people," due to his support for collective bargaining, opposition to the Janus v. AFSCME Supreme Court decision, and support for infrastructure funding, among other reasons.

As of March 2019, Smith is the only Republican co-sponsor of the Paycheck Fairness Act. He also supported the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, which expanded the scope of the statute of limitations for pay discrimination.

Smith cited the example of Lech Wałęsa and the Solidarity movement as a reason he support unions. He also said of his fellow Republicans, "What my Republican colleagues often don't understand is that labor is a human-rights issue".

Veterans affairs

Bob Wallace, executive director of the Veterans of Foreign Wars calls Smith "the best friend" of veterans. In 2004, Smith refused to endorse the Republican budget proposal unless it included more money for veterans. In a congressional hearing, Smith publicly articulated his belief that the Bush Administration's budget request was $1.2 billion less than the Department of Veterans Affairs actually required, embarrassing the administration and Republican congressional leadership. In 2005, Smith was removed from his chairmanship and membership on the Veterans Affair Committee for his aggressive role in seeking more funding for veteran-related causes.

Science policy

Smith supports efforts to provide alternatives to embryonic stem cell research. In 2005, he co-sponsored a bill with Artur Davis to fund the creation of a network of national blood banks to distribute umbilical cord blood for stem cell research.

Economy and taxation

Smith voted against the 2017 Republican tax legislation backed by Donald Trump; he was one of five Republican representatives from New Jersey who joined Democrats in opposing the bill. Smith opposed the bill as "unfair to the taxpayers of New Jersey" because it dramatically limited the federal reduction of state and local taxes (SALT). and said he would be "forced to oppose" more tax cuts if legislation included a provision permanently extending the $10,000 cap on the SALT deduction.

Smith voted for the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981. The Act aimed to stimulate economic growth by significantly reducing income tax rates. It passed the House of Representatives in a 323–107 vote, the Senate via a voice vote, and it was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on August 13, 1981. Smith also voted for the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981. The Act decreased federal spending and increased military funding. It passed the House of Representatives in a 232–193 vote, the Senate via a voice vote, and it was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan the same day.

Electoral history

In elections marked with an asterisk (*), additional candidates received less than 1% of the vote.