A native of the state, he served in the Air Force before working in the airline industry and taking over the family's newspaper business.

[1] In 1956, he graduated from Grant Union High School in John Day and enrolled at Willamette University in Salem.

[2] He worked for Pan American Airlines, and in 1974 was chosen by fellow employees to serve as the union's lobbyist in Washington, DC.

For his first term, Smith represented a vast district that stretched from his home in the state capital, Salem, all the way to the Idaho border.

[4] While still serving in Congress, Smith established and headed Oregonians Against Crime, which placed Oregon's 1988 Anti-crime Bill on the ballot by initiative petition and successfully campaigned for its passage.

In 1994, Smith was the Republican nominee for Governor of Oregon, but lost to Democratic state Senate President John Kitzhaber.

[8] The only son of former Oregon Governor Elmo Smith and his wife Dorothy,[2] he is also a cousin of Steve Symms, a former congressman and Senator from Idaho.