Linda Smith (American politician)
| Linda Smith | |
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| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Washington's 3rd district |
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In office January 3, 1995 – January 3, 1999 |
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| Preceded by | Jolene Unsoeld |
| Succeeded by | Brian Baird |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
July 16, 1950 La Junta, Colorado, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Religion | Assemblies of God |
Linda Smith (born July 16, 1950 in La Junta, Colorado) is a member of the Republican Party who represented Washington's 3rd congressional district from 1995 to 1999 and was the unsuccessful Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in 1998, losing to incumbent Democrat Patty Murray. After leaving politics, Linda Smith founded Shared Hope International, a nonprofit organization to rescue and restore women and children in crisis. Since its creation, Smith has worked around the world and within the United States on behalf of those who have been victimized through sex trafficking.
Smith grew up in a working class home. Her father abandoned the family and her mother remarried a mechanic (who went on to have a long career with the railroad), and in 1966 moved the family to Vancouver, Washington. Linda has an older sister, two younger sisters, and two younger brothers. In high school, she had part-time jobs as a fruit picker and a day-care aide. She later recalled, “I felt like by 17, I had had more lives than most people." Linda was known by her family to be a little "dramatic." She was 24 years old when her mother died of cancer, leaving her two younger brothers at home. Her step father remarried a few months later.
In 1968, she married Vern Smith, a young locomotive engineer, shortly before the age of 18, and they raised two children. She became the manager of a number of independent tax offices in Southern Washington. She currently lives in Vancouver with her husband, and has two children and six grandchildren.
Smith began her political career in a special election in 1983 when she defeated a Democratic Party incumbent to win a seat in the Washington House of Representatives. In 1987, she moved up to the state Senate, giving Republicans control of that chamber, and remained there until her supporters began a September 1994 write-in campaign to elect her to Washington's 3rd congressional district. In spite of being dubbed the "Hazel Dell housewife", Smith began a 19-day-long grassroots campaign that resulted in her defeating the only Republican candidate listed on the primary ballot. Having secured a ballot line as the Republican nominee through her September write-in campaign, she went on to defeat liberal three-term Democrat Jolene Unsoeld in November. She narrowly won reelection in 1996, defeating Democrat Brian Baird by only 113 votes.
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