Fred Smith

Biography

Fred Smith is a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor and a three-term state senator.

Early Life

Fred Julius Smith Jr. was born in Raleigh on March 27, 1942, to Fred and Eudell Smith.

His father was a teacher and coach and his mother a cottage housemother at the Methodist Orphanage in Raleigh, now the site of Fred Fletcher Park.

As a child, he delivered newspapers and was in the Boy Scouts.

At Broughton High School in Raleigh, he played football and baseball, was a member of the Spanish Club and the Monogram Club and served as president of the Social Studies Club.

A football standout, he played in the prestigious Shrine Bowl, where he was named outstanding lineman, and was chosen by N&O sports reporters for the All-State Team.

He graduated on June 1, 1960. 

Education

Smith earned a football scholarship to Wake Forest University, where he earned a bachelor of arts degree in 1964. In college, he was social chair of the Kappa Alpha Order, a Southern fraternity.

In 1966, he earned a law degree from Wake Forest, graduating cum laude. He passed the North Carolina bar exam that year.

Religion

He is a member of the First Baptist Church of Clayton.

Family

He lives in Clayton with his wife, Ginny. His sons, Jule, Duval and Reid; his daughter, Heather, and his sons-in-law David and Jake work for the Fred Smith Co. 

Military Service

After law school, Smith served in the U.S. Army as a Judge Advocate General.

From 1966 to 1968, he served on the staff of the Judge Advocate General's School at the University of Virginia. 

From 1968 to 1970, he worked as a Judge Advocate at the Pine Bluff Arsenal in Pine Bluff, Ark.

He achieved the rank of captain and earned the First Oak Leaf Cluster. 

Professional Career 

After he left the Army, Smith worked in Raleigh as a managing partner in the Smith Debnam Hibbert & Pahl law firm, now known as Smith Debnam Narrown Wyche Story & Myers. 

In 1986, he founded the Fred Smith Co., which has built subdvisions such as Hedingham in Raleigh, and Riverwood and Lion's Gate in Clayton. 

He is also the chief executive officer of C.C. Mangum, a Raleigh-based road building company that is a contractor for the state Department of Transportation. 

Since 2005, the Fred Smith Co. and C.C. Mangum have voluntarily participated in a federal program that allows businesses to check employees' immigration status online. 

Smith is chairman of the board of North State Bank. He briefly owned a stake in a downtown Raleigh restaurant, Prime Only.

He currently serves on the board of trustees of Campbell University. 

Political Career

In 2000, Smith served a term as Johnston County commissioner.

In 2002, he was elected to the state Senate as a Republican, winning re-election in 2004 and 2006.

In office, he has co-sponsored bills that would ban gay marriage in the state constitution, raise the cap on charter schools and restrict the use of eminent domain.

He has been ranked 30th, 31st and 38th out of 50 state senators in effectiveness.

He was the prime sponsor of a law that makes it a crime to break into a place of worship.

Gubernatorial Campaign

On March 23, 2007, Smith announced that he is running for the Republican nomination for governor at a rally at Fred Fletcher Park in Raleigh.

He pledged to fight illegal immigration, support a state referendum to ban gay marriage and protect private property rights. 

He campaigned for local sheriffs to be given the authority to fight illegal immigration and for the state to stop transferring money from the Highway Trust Fund to the general fund. He argued for a "free-market" solution to health care, saying that people have to be personally responsible.

He's also said affirmative action has no place in higher education.

Through the fall and winter, Smith campaigned in all 100 counties in the state, traveling in a used motorhome he converted to a mobile office. At each stop, he typically served barbecue, played a song by Lee Greenwood written for his campaign, gave a short stump speech and signed copies of his self-published autobiography.

He faces former Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr, Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, Salisbury attorney Bill Graham and pecan farmer Elbie Powers in the Republican gubernatorial primary.

He was endorsed by the National Rifle Association's Political Victory Fund and the state chapter of the Eagle Forum.

Research and reporting by Ryan Teague Beckwith and Matt Tomsic.

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Issues

How will you measure success in your first year in office?

"The way I would measure success in my first year in office is if I've been able to establish the right cutlure — a culture of work, a culture of honesty and a culture of thrift. And then, as I like to put it, to get the right people on the bus and the wrong people off the bus and be sure we have talented people that can tackle the issues of our state."

Tell us about something you did for someone else.

"Probably one of the best things that I've done is (my wife) Ginny and I have started the Artisans school program in Johnston County. It's been instrumental in raising close to three-quarters of a million dollars to make sure that every child in Johnston County has a chance to be exposed to the arts and broaden their educational experience." 

What is the biggest challenge facing North Carolina? Your county? Your district?

"I think the biggest challenge we face is dealing with the recession that I think we're going to have for the next year or two. i think we've got to have government that understands that we've got to cut the government's budget before we force families to cut their budget. That's a government that understands we've got to deliver more for less." 

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