The congressman from the 3rd District is Adrian Smith, the youngest of the 13 freshman Republicans elected to the House in 2006. He hails from a politically active family—his father is a former county Republican chairman, and his mother is the state GOP secretary. But the most significant political influence in Smith’s life was President Ronald Reagan. When he was in fourth grade, Smith recalls, adults around him were weighing Reagan’s attributes against that of Democrat Jimmy Carter’s, and it sunk into the boy’s head that Reagan favored a strong defense. “It just made sense to me that we needed a strong military,” said Smith, whose congressional office is filled with portraits of the former president. In college, Smith served as an intern in the Nebraska governor’s office and as a page in the state’s unicameral legislature. At 23, shortly after graduating from the University of Nebraska, he won election to the Gering City Council in his hometown. Four years later, he knocked off a Democratic incumbent to win the first of two terms in the legislature. There, Smith devoted his efforts to opposing abortion rights, protecting Nebraskans’ right to bear arms, fighting tax increases, and blocking efforts to expand casino gambling. He also worked as a real estate agent and owned a storage business. Read More

The congressman from the 3rd District is Adrian Smith, the youngest of the 13 freshman Republicans elected to the House in 2006. He hails from a politically active family—his father is a former county Republican chairman, and his mother is the state GOP secretary. But the most significant political influence in Smith’s life was President Ronald Reagan. When he was in fourth grade, Smith recalls, adults around him were weighing Reagan’s attributes against that of Democrat Jimmy Carter’s, and it sunk into the boy’s head that Reagan favored a strong defense. “It just made sense to me that we needed a strong military,” said Smith, whose congressional office is filled with portraits of the former president. In college, Smith served as an intern in the Nebraska governor’s office and as a page in the state’s unicameral legislature. At 23, shortly after graduating from the University of Nebraska, he won election to the Gering City Council in his hometown. Four years later, he knocked off a Democratic incumbent to win the first of two terms in the legislature. There, Smith devoted his efforts to opposing abortion rights, protecting Nebraskans’ right to bear arms, fighting tax increases, and blocking efforts to expand casino gambling. He also worked as a real estate agent and owned a storage business.

In May 2005, two weeks after Rep. Tom Osborne, a Republican, announced his ultimately unsuccessful primary bid for governor, Smith joined the race for Osborne’s seat in Congress. The crowded Republican primary field included Grand Island Mayor Jay Vavricek and John Hanson, Osborne’s former district director. Smith championed tax incentives to attract new residents and encourage investment in the district. He also promised to expand markets globally for Nebraska farmers. Still, his opponents charged that he betrayed rural Nebraska by accepting more than $300,000 in contributions from members of the Club for Growth, a national anti-tax group that opposes farm subsidies. Smith supports caps on subsidies, which many of his farming constituents do not. He parried by touting his support from the Nebraska Farm Bureau. Smith ultimately carried 39 of the 69 counties to win the nomination with 39%. Hanson finished second with 29% and was strongest in the Republican River valley south of North Platte, while Vavricek’s 27% came mainly from the Grand Island area.

In the general election, the Democrats fielded an unusually strong nominee: Yale-educated, cattle rancher Scott Kleeb. He accused Smith of “distorting the truth” about the Club for Growth’s opposition to farm subsidies. Smith sought to link Kleeb to Democrats who supported a timetable for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, and he portrayed Kleeb as a political carpetbagger who grew up overseas on military bases and attended schools in Colorado and Connecticut before settling in Nebraska on a family-owned ranch. Kleeb’s retort was, “You don’t run as a Democrat in the 3rd District because you thought it would be easy.” Kleeb called for changes in farm policy to emphasize niche markets. He was competitive financially and kept the race close in the polls. Still, Smith won 55%-45%.

In Washington, Smith has been much more conservative than his Nebraska colleagues Lee Terry and Jeff Fortenberry, joining the Tea Party Caucus in 2010. He landed a seat on the Agriculture Committee and focused his early efforts on the rewrite of farm policy in 2007, working to expand rural development programs, increase research of biofuels, and open international markets for Nebraska crops.

He stood by President George W. Bush as support for the war in Iraq waned, even turning down the Democrats’ offer of billions of dollars in drought relief if he joined them in pushing timetables for withdrawing troops. As co-chairman of the Congressional Rural Caucus, Smith in 2009 pushed President Barack Obama to set up an Office of Rural Affairs, and he pushed to preserve federal grants for tiny airports. The same year, Smith got the House to pass his bill setting up a grant program to relieve veterinarian shortages.

Smith was rewarded for his party loyalty with a coveted assignment to the powerful Ways and Means Committee in 2011. He called for Obama to move more swiftly on pending trade deals. Unlike the budget deficit scoreboard on many Republicans’ websites, Smith’s site displayed the number of days since the U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement was signed and the estimated tariffs imposed on exports to that country since then.

In the 2008 primary, Smith easily defeated Jeremiah Ellison, an activist supporter of libertarian Rep. Ron Paul of Texas. Kleeb turned down a rematch and instead ran for the U.S. Senate. Two years later, Smith trounced Democrat Rebekah Davis, 70%-18%.