Robert C. "Bob" Smith (born March 30, 1941) is an American politician that has served in both the United States House of Representatives and the Senate. He is a member of the Republican Party.

Smith was born in Trenton, New Jersey. He obtained a bachelor's degree from Lafayette College in 1965 and served in the United States Navy from 1965 to 1967, including a year of duty in Vietnam. Smith then taught history and English and got into the real estate business.

He unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982. He represented New Hampshire in the House of Representatives from 1985 to December 1990. He was elected to the Senate in 1990 to succeed the retiring Republican Senator Gordon J. Humphrey . He began to serve in December of 1990 because he was appointed to the position early following Humphrey's resignation. Smith was reelected in 1996 and served until 2003. In his 1996 reelection campaign he defeated Democrat Dick Swett with 49% of the vote. Its most famous incident occurred on election night when several networks claimed that Swett had won, and were then forced to admit their mistake later. It would become known as a foreshadowing of the 2000 presidential election controversies in which television networks also reported results too early which turned out to be incorrect.

Smith became the most conservative member of the Senate and in January 1999 announced that he was a candidate for the Republican nomination for president (at the time the front-runner was Texas Gov. George W. Bush). In July, after failing to gain any ground in the presidential race, Smith announced he was leaving the Republican party and would seek the nomination of ultra-conservative U.S. Taxpayers Party for president. One month later, Smith swore off the Taxpayers party and announced as an independent. He withdrew completely from the race in October and endorsed Bush.

In the meantime, Sen. John Chafee (R-R.I.) had died and thus the chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works had reopened. Smith recanted his repudiation of the Republican party, claiming it had been "a mistake" and claiming that since he had never officially changed his voting registration that he had never left the party. Smith then was appointed as Chafee's successor to the chairmanship by the G.O.P.

In 2002, Smith was defeated in the Republican primary by John E. Sununu.

In 2004, he endorsed John Kerry for president.

External link

• Biographical Directory of the US Congress: Robert C. Smith