Linda Smith
Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromWashington's3rd district
In office January 3, 1995 – January 3, 1999
Preceded by	Jolene Unsoeld
Succeeded by	Brian Baird
Member of theWashington Senate from the18th district
In office January 11, 1988 – January 2, 1995
Preceded by	Joe Tanner
Succeeded by	Hal Palmer
Member of theWashington House of Representatives from the18th district
In office January 9, 1984 – December 4, 1987
Preceded by	Oliver Ristuben
Succeeded by	Stan Butterfield
Personal details
Born	Linda Ann Simpson (1950-07-16)July 16, 1950 (age 75) La Junta, Colorado, U.S.
Political party	Republican

Linda Ann Smith^[1] (néeSimpson; born July 16, 1950)^[2] is a member of theRepublican Party who representedWashington's3rd congressional district from 1995 to 1999 and was the unsuccessful Republican nominee for the U.S. Senatein 1998, losing to incumbent DemocratPatty Murray. After leaving politics, she foundedShared Hope International, a nonprofit organization focused on ending minor sex trafficking. Since its creation, Smith has worked around the world and within the United States on behalf of those who have been victimized throughsex trafficking.

Smith grew up in a working class home. Her father abandoned the family and her mother remarried a mechanic, and in 1966 the family moved toVancouver, Washington. Smith has an older sister, two younger sisters, and two younger brothers. In high school she had part-time jobs as a fruit picker and a day-care aide. She later recalled, "I felt like by 17, I had had more lives than most people." She was 24 years old when her mother died of cancer, leaving her two younger brothers at home.^[1]

In 1968, she married Vern Smith, a young locomotive engineer, and they raised two children. She became the manager of a number of independent tax offices in Southern Washington. She currently lives in Vancouver and has two children and six grandchildren.

Smith began her political career in a special election in 1983 when she defeated aDemocratic Party incumbent to win a seat in theWashington House of Representatives. In 1987, she moved up to the state Senate, giving Republicans control of that chamber, and remained there until her supporters began a September 1994 write-in campaign to elect her to Washington's 3rd congressional district, after Republican candidate Tim Moyer suddenly dropped out of the race. Smith began a 19-day-long grassroots campaign that resulted in her defeating the only Republican candidate listed on the primary ballot. Having secured a ballot line as the Republican nominee through her September write-in campaign, she went on to defeat liberal three-term DemocratJolene Unsoeld in November. She narrowly won reelection in 1996, defeating DemocratBrian Baird by only 113 votes.

Smith was known for her strong pro-life stance and supporting campaign finance reform, and being one of 9 House Republicans to vote against confirming House SpeakerNewt Gingrich in early 1997.

In November 1997, Smith was one of eighteen Republicans in the House to co-sponsora resolution byBob Barr that sought to launch animpeachment inquiry against PresidentBill Clinton.^[3][4] The resolution did not specify any charges or allegations.^[4] This was an early effort toimpeach Clinton, predating the eruption of theClinton–Lewinsky scandal. The eruption of that scandal would ultimately lead to a more serious effort to impeach Clinton in 1998.^[5] On October 8, 1998, Smith voted in favor of legislation that was passed to openan impeachment inquiry.^[6]On December 19, 1998, Smith voted in favor of all four proposedarticles of impeachment against Clinton (only two of which received the majority of votes needed to be adopted).^{[7][8][9][10]}

Giving up her House seat in 1998, Smith ran for Washington's Class 3 U.S. Senate seat. She defeated former King County Prosecuting AttorneyChris Bayley to face sitting U.S. SenatorPatty Murray, only the third Senate race between two women. Ultimately Murray won by a 58%-to-42% margin.^[1]

In the fall of 1998, while still a member of the U.S. Congress, Smith traveled to Falkland Road inMumbai (formerly Bombay), India, which is one of the worst brothel districts in the world. The hopeless faces of desperate women and children forced into prostitution compelled her to foundShared Hope International (SHI), a non-profit organization dedicated to eradicating sex-trafficking.^[11] Since Smith's retirement from Congress, she has devoted her energy to this cause, traveling around the world to prevent, restore, and bring justice to victims of trafficking.^[12] Shared Hope supports shelter and service creation for sex trafficking survivors using a comprehensive model for restoration. By partnering with local organizations, Shared Hope provides restorative care, shelter, education, and job skills training^[13] at Homes and Villages of Hope^[14][15] where women and children can live without time limit. Today, Shared Hope provides leadership in awareness and training, prevention strategies, restorative care, research, and policy initiatives to mobilize a national network of protection for victims.

To build momentum in the internationalanti-trafficking movement, Smith also founded the War Against Trafficking Alliance (WATA) in January 2001. WATA coordinates both regional and international efforts necessary to combat sex trafficking. In February 2003, WATA co-sponsored a World Summit with the U.S. Department of State, which brought together non-government and government leaders from 114 nations, all demonstrating a sustained commitment to prosecuting trafficking, providing assistance to victims, and building regional strategies to protect the vulnerable from the sex trade.^[16] In 2005, WATA was invited to participate, along withUNIFEM, in the firstASEAN conference to addresschild sex tourism in East and Southeast Asia.^[17]

With a grant from theU.S. Department of State, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, Smith and her team have worked in the field conducting research in Jamaica, the Netherlands, Japan, and the United States in order to reveal the sophisticated business model behind sex trafficking, exposing the buyers who increase demand and the traffickers who supply the victims. This extensive research led to SHI's release of the DEMAND. report and documentary in 2007.^[18][19]

In response to the findings from the DEMAND. report, since 2006 Smith and Shared Hope International have partnered with Anti-Trafficking Task Forces in ten U.S. cities with funding from theU.S Department of Justice,^[20] to identify and provide services to American victims of Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking (DMST).The National Report on Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking: America's Prostituted Children, also released by SHI, compiled all of the information obtained throughout four years of research in America. It examines the governmental and nongovernmental efforts and gaps in addressing child sex trafficking in the United States.^[21][22]

After over a decade of undercover investigations, extensive research and conducting thousands of survivor interviews, Smith herself was "shocked" by what was revealed.^[23] In 2009, Smith released a book titled Renting Lacy: A Story of America's Prostituted Children, which explores the traumas endured by young girls who are used in the commercial sex industry.^[24]

Smith developed Chosen, a youth sex trafficking prevention film series, after contributing to the rescue of an 18-year-old female who was unknowingly targeted by a trafficker and in immediate danger of being sold. Smith produced Chosen to teach teens the warning signs and indicators of trafficking through the true stories of teenage girls who were tricked by traffickers. Brianna, Lacy and Maria discuss how modern American pimps and gangs are luring youth into the commercial sex industry and how teens can protect themselves and others from being chosen. The resource packages include additional educational tools to further discussion, learning and action.^[25]

The Demanding Justice Project was developed and directed by Smith as a targeted campaign to promote demand deterrence through increased attention and advocacy on demand. The research report documents the outcomes of federal and state arrests, charges and prosecutions of buyers of sex acts with children. The corresponding campaign website, www.demandingjustice.org, contains information about buyers convicted of purchasing sex with a minor.^[26]

As an expert on trafficking, Smith has spoken out against the trafficking of women and children in numerous Congressional hearings and in national and international forums, such as the World Conference on Trafficking, Congressional Hearing on the International Violence Against Women Act along with AmbassadorMelanee Verveer and UNIFEM Goodwill AmbassadorNicole Kidman,^[27] and the U.S.-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission on the Protection of Children. At the Helsinki Commission Hearing in 2006, Smith testified about theCommercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) in America.^[28][29] She has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, USA Today, Dan Rather Reports, ABC News, the Dr. Phil Show,^[30] O'Reilly Factor,^[31] and CBN. She received the 2009 Soroptimist Making a Difference for Women Award^[32] and the 2010 Soroptimist Ruby Award: For Women Helping Women. Smith has been published in news outlets and journals around the world; includingThe New York Times, the Fletcher Forum of World Affairs, the International Review of Penal Law, and the Regent University Law Review.

• Women in the United States House of Representatives

• Smith, Linda (2009).Renting Lacy: A Story of America's Prostituted Children. Shared Hope International.ISBN 978-0-9765594-6-7.

• United States Congress."Linda Smith (id: S000587)".Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• http://www.sharedhope.org
• https://web.archive.org/web/20101118074621/http://www.thedefendersusa.org/

• 1998 Race for U.S. Senate
  • Patty Murray (D) (inc.), 58%
  • Linda Smith (R), 42%

• 1950 births
• 20th-century American women politicians
• 20th-century members of the United States House of Representatives
• 20th-century members of the Washington State Legislature
• 21st-century American women
• American Pentecostals
• Anti–human trafficking activists
• Candidates in the 1998 United States elections
• Female members of the United States House of Representatives
• Living people
• People from La Junta, Colorado
• Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Washington (state)
• Republican Party members of the Washington House of Representatives
• Republican Party Washington (state) state senators
• Women state legislators in Washington (state)
• Writers from Colorado
• Writers from Washington (state)

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