Jason Smith

Jason Thomas Smith (born June 16, 1980) is a Missouri businessman, lawyer, and politician who currently represents Missouri's 8th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives. A member of the Republican Party who is generally considered one of its more conservative congressmen, he has served in the House since his first election in June 2013, following a career in the Missouri state legislature.

Early Life

Smith was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Bill and Mary Ann (Canady) Smith. His father, who died in 2019, was a former minister and car mechanic; his mother is a former employee of the engine manufacturer Briggs & Stratton, as well as a dog breeder. He has one brother, Bill Jr.

The family moved during Jason Smith's childhood to the Ozark community of Salem, Missouri, where he attended Salem High School and graduated in 1998. He then went to the University of Missouri, obtaining two Bachelor of Science degrees in Agriculture Economics and Business Administration. In 2001 he began studies at the Oklahoma City University School of Law, where he served as class secretary, vice president of the law school's student body, and its representative in the student senate. After earning his law degree in 2004, he returned to Missouri, where he passed the state bar, practiced at a law firm in Cuba, Missouri, and managed the family farm, while also operating a small real estate business that he had begun while at law school.

Missouri House of Representatives

In 2005, Democratic state legislator Frank Barnitz, representing the 150th District (in which Smith resided), announced his resignation, forcing a special election to replace him. Despite having only just that summer turned 25 and thus become eligible to serve in the Missouri House of Representatives, Smith announced his candidacy on the Republican ticket, and when the election was held on November 8, 2005, he won with 54% of the vote. When he assumed office six days later, he was the youngest member of the state legislature. He won reelection to his first full term the following year, and successfully ran again in 2008, 2010, and finally 2012, after which he was term-limited. After 2008 he was unopposed by Democrat candidates.

During his first session in the Missouri House, Smith was appointed Majority Assistant Deputy Whip, and received several committee assignments. After winning his first reelection bid in 2006, he was named Vice-Chairman of the Special Committee on Job Creation and Economic Development. For the start of the 2011 legislative session, he was elevated to the position of Majority Whip (one of the youngest legislators to serve in that capacity), and in 2013, as his final term began, he was elected House Speaker Pro Tempore.

U.S. House of Representatives

On January 22, 2013, Republican congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson, then representing Missouri's 8th Congressional District in the U.S. House (including most of south-central and southeast Missouri), announced she was resigning to become CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. At the party's nomination convention on February 9, Smith defeated a number of well-known state politicians--including Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder, former state treasurer Sarah Steelman, and several state senators and representatives--to become the Republican candidate in the special election, which was held on June 4. In that contest, he defeated Democratic State Representative Steve Hodges of East Prairie with 67% of the vote. This marked the 47th election in a row, going back to 1994, that Democrats failed to flip a Republican-held seat for the U.S. House in Missouri: an indication of the state's increasingly conservative tilt.

Smith won election to a full term in the House in November 2014, again with about 67% of the vote, and has increased that margin of victory in subsequent races. In the November 2020 general election, he won about 76.9% of all votes cast, his best showing to date. He has consistently won a majority in every county in the district.