First elected to the House of Representatives as a Republican in 1984, he was re-elected twice before running for the Senate in 1990, winning the open seat and assuming it early when incumbent Gordon J. Humphrey resigned.

After failing to gain traction, he withdrew before the primaries began and joined the Taxpayers' Party, seeking their nomination instead.

Smith ran for re-election in 2002 but lost the Republican primary to Congressman John E. Sununu, who won the general election.

After his defeat he moved to Florida and briefly ran for the Senate from there in 2004 and in 2010, but dropped out early on in both cases after faring poorly in polls of the Republican primary.

[1] He obtained a bachelor's degree from Lafayette College in 1965 and did graduate work at California State University, Long Beach.

He served in the United States Navy Reserve from 1962 to 1965 as an ensign, and was on active duty from 1965 to 1967, including a year in Vietnam.

He also served on his local school board and got into the real estate business as owner and operator of the Yankee Pedlar brokerage.

With the recession and President Reagan's unpopularity aiding Democratic candidates, Smith lost to incumbent Norman D'Amours by 55% to 45%.

In 1994, Smith and fellow Republican senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina introduced an amendment denying federal funding to schools which promoted homosexuality in their curricula.

Smith, with fellow Republican Senators James Inhofe and Tim Hutchinson, campaigned vigorously against Hormel's nomination.

[7] In February 1999, at Kingswood Regional High School in Wolfeboro, Smith announced that he was a candidate for the Republican nomination for President of the United States (at the time the front-runner was Texas Governor George W.

"[14] As of 2014[update], its website describes the group as "a non-partisan, non-profit national foundation with the primary function of educating the American public as to the importance and relevance in today's society of the United States Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, The Federalist Papers, and other founding documents.

The APF supported Lakin and released a video where he explained his intent to disobey what he believed to be "illegal orders".

"[16] Smith ran in the 2004 primary for Florida's U.S. Senate seat against Mel Martinez, but dropped out after raising little money[17] and receiving less than 1% support in Republican polls.

[18] Less than a month before the November 2004 U.S. Senate election in New Hampshire, Smith wrote an op-ed for the Concord Monitor in which he denounced the lack of Republican outrage over that party's phone jamming on Election Day 2002, when Republican operatives had flooded phone banks with incoming calls to hamper them from being used by Democratic party workers to contact Shaheen supporters to get them to the polls.

[23] He dropped out of the race in March 2010, after faring poorly in the polls against Governor Charlie Crist and Marco Rubio.