Erica Danette Smith[1] (born November 24, 1969) is an American engineer and politician who represented District 3 in the North Carolina Senate from 2015 to 2021.

She was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate in 2022,[5] but she switched to the race for North Carolina's 1st congressional district after Rep. G. K. Butterfield announced that he would not run for another term.

[13] Smith began mapping out her path to the United States Senate at a Congressional Black Caucus "boot camp" Political Training Institute in 2005.

[11] During her primary contest, a Republican group, created just a few weeks earlier in 2020 and funded entirely by a Mitch McConnell-created conduit called "Faith and Power", spent $2.95 million to run ads supporting Smith,[15] the content of which she found objectionable.

"[16] Cal Cunningham, her major opponent, to whom she eventually finished second said, "Washington Republicans know Senator Tillis is weak, and apparently they don't like his chances against me in November.

The Tillis campaign denied foreknowledge of the ad buy, claiming it, "...couldn't be the least bit concerned with which radical liberal emerges from the chaos that is the Democratic primary".

[13] On November 23, 2021, Smith withdrew from the Senate race and announced her campaign for the redrawn North Carolina's 1st congressional district, aiming to replace retiring U.S. representative G. K.