Barry Thomas Smitherman (born September 13, 1957) is an American lawyer who served as a member and chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission from 2011 to 2015.

[6][7] In January 2003, Smitherman became a prosecutor in the Harris County District Attorney’s office,[8] and in May 2003 Perry named him to the board of the Texas Public Finance Authority.

[11] After seven years at the PUC, where Smitherman was seen as an advocate of deregulation, he left in July 2011 when Perry appointed him to the Railroad Commission to fill the position vacated by Republican Michael L. Williams, an unsuccessful candidate in 2012 for the United States House of Representatives.

[14] In February 2013, Smitherman apologized for retweeting a list of 16 Republican US senators who voted to allow debate on gun control legislation accompanied by an image of a noose and the word "TREASON.

"[15] Later that year, Smitherman complained to his daughter's school teacher for using curricular material provided by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) to study the novel To Kill a Mockingbird.

[16] Smitherman characterized what he felt to be the "radical view of racism, hate, and intolerance" held by the SLPC, and he defended a number of organizations such as the Jewish Defense League, the Border Guardians, and Crusaders for Yahweh.

He was succeeded by Ryan Sitton of Friendswood, who serves with two other Republicans, David J. Porter of Lee County, who unseated former commissioner Victor G. Carrillo in the Republican primary in 2010 but is retiring effective January 2017, and Christi Craddick of Austin, who was elected in 2012 to fill the seat formerly held by Elizabeth Ames Jones but occupied in the preceding interim months by Buddy Garcia of Austin.