Barry Smitherman
| Barry Thomas Smitherman | |
|---|---|
| Texas Railroad Commissioner | |
|
In office July 8, 2011 – January 2015 |
|
| Governor | Rick Perry |
| Preceded by | Michael L. Williams |
| Succeeded by | Ryan Sitton |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
September 13, 1957 Highlands, Harris County Texas, USA |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Marijane Frede Smitherman (married 1987) |
| Children | Four children |
| Residence | Austin, Texas |
| Alma mater |
Ross S. Sterling High School |
| Occupation | Lawyer |
| Religion | Non-denominational Christian |
Ross S. Sterling High School
Texas A&M University
University of Texas School of Law
Barry Thomas Smitherman (born September 13, 1957) is a lawyer who served as a member and chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission from 2011 to 2015. A Republican, he was appointed to the commission on July 8, 2011 by then Governor Rick Perry to fill a vacant post; on February 28, 2012 he was elected chairman of the commission, which regulates not railroads but the Texas oil and gas industry.
In 2013, Smitherman announced his candidacy to succeed Greg Abbott as state attorney general in the Republican primary election held on March 4, 2014, when Abbott polled 91.5 percent of the ballots cast to win the party's nomination for governor to succeed the retiring Rick Perry, who declined to seek a fourth full term. Smitherman's opponents were State Senator Ken Paxton of McKinney in Collin County and State Representative Dan Branch of Dallas County.
Smitherman finished in third place with 281,064 votes (22.1 percent) in the primary race for attorney general.
Smitherman was reared in Highlands in Harris County on the east side of Houston, Texas. He graduated from Ross S. Sterling High School in Baytown, Texas. He then received a Bachelor of Business Administration summa cum laude from Texas A&M University at College Station. Thereafter, he obtained his Juris Doctor from the University of Texas School of Law in Austin, while he worked at the state capitol for a state senator, Lindon Williams, a Democrat. Smitherman further received a Master of Public Administration degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. There he was awarded the first Joel Leff Fellowship in Political Economy.
...
Wikipedia