William C. Smith Jr. on the George Floyd protests and subsequent criminal justice reforms. Recorded June 11, 2020
William Colonel Smith Jr.[1] (born February 6, 1982) is an American politician who is a member of the Maryland Senate representing District 20 since 2016. He previously represented the district in the Maryland House of Delegates from 2015 to 2016.
Smith chaired the Montgomery County Community Development Block Grant Board from 2004 to 2008, afterwards chairing the county Victim Services Advisory Board until 2012. He served the director of the Homeland Security Advisory Council in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from 2011 to 2013. At the same time, Smith was the second vice president of the Montgomery County NAACP later serving on the group's executive committee.[3]
In 2005, Smith started Youth Achieve Inc., a youth development nonprofit. As of 2023, he currently serves on the board of directors of multiple organizations, including Gandhi Brigade, the GapBuster Learning Center, and Impact Silver Spring.[3]
Smith worked as an attorney for the Federal Practice Group from 2014 to 2016, and for the Solomon Law Firm since 2018.[3]
Maryland House of Delegates
Smith ran for the Maryland House of Delegates in 2014, seeking to succeed state delegates Heather Mizeur and Tom Hucker, who both announced campaigns for higher office. During the Democratic primary, he ran on a slate with state senator Jamie Raskin, state delegate Sheila E. Hixson, and candidate David Moon.[2] The slate won the Democratic primary in June, and later won the general election in November 2014.[9]
House Speaker Michael E. Busch swears Smith into the Maryland House of Delegates, 2015
Smith was sworn into the Maryland House of Delegates on January 14, 2015. During his short tenure, he was a member of the House Judiciary Committee, serving in its criminal justice and family law subcommittees.[3]
Maryland Senate
In November 2016, after state senator Jamie Raskin resigned following his election to Congress, Smith applied to serve the remainder of Raskin's term in the Maryland Senate.[10] The Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee voted 19–8 to nominate Smith over state delegate David Moon to fill the vacancy.[11][12] He was appointed to the seat by Governor Larry Hogan on December 13, 2016.[13]
Smith was sworn into the Maryland Senate on December 21, 2016,[3] and was elected to a full four-year term in 2018.[14] He is the first Black person to represent Montgomery County in the Maryland Senate.[15] Smith has served in the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee during his entire tenure.[3] In July 2018, he was named vice chair to the committee,[16] and in December 2019, Senate President Bill Ferguson announced that he would appoint Smith to chair the committee following the resignation of Robert Zirkin.[5] In February 2022, Smith delivered the Democratic response to Governor Hogan's State of the State Address.[17]
Smith is married to his wife, Camille Fesche, who works as a lobbyist for in the Maryland General Assembly. Together, they have a daughter, born 2018.[20]
Maryland Matters has described Smith as a progressive, noting that he represents the most progressive legislative district in the state.[21]
Crime
During the 2019 legislative session, Smith introduced a bill requiring drunk driving offenders to use ignition interlocks after their first offense.[22]
In February 2020, Smith introduced a legislative package to address the public safety crisis in Baltimore, including bills to increase crackdowns on and incentives for reporting illegal firearms, expanded supervision of residents on parole, and improved information-sharing between local police departments.[23] The bills were seen as the legislature's response to a trio of crime bills introduced by Governor Larry Hogan, which Smith opposed for increasing mandatory minimum sentences for certain crimes.[24] Following negotiations between Hogan and legislative leaders, the bills passed with amendments including some aspects of Hogan's crime bills, including provisions to increase penalties for illegal firearm penalties, and became law.[25]
During the 2021 legislative session, Smith introduced the TRUST Act, a bill that would prohibit police from asking detainees about their immigration status and limit governments' ability to sharing data with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE),[26] and the Dignity Not Detention Act, which would prohibit counties from holding contracts with ICE.[27] Both bills were vetoed by Governor Hogan,[28] but legislators voted to override his veto during its special legislative session later that year.[29]
In late 2021, Smith endorsed bills that would to end the practice of charging juveniles as adults in criminal court[30] and another to prohibit police from questioning kids without their parents' consent.[31]
In April 2023, during debate on legislation to raise the age for legal gun possession to 21, Smith objected to a proposed amendment that would allow someone who completed a sentence for illegal gun possession to apply to convert their sentence to probation before judgment after completing a firearms training course. The amendment initially adopted in a 27-16 vote, but the amendment was later withdrawn from the bill in a 28-14 vote.[32]
During the 2017 legislative session, Smith introduced a bill that would ban school suspensions and expulsions in prekindergarten.[34] The bill passed and became law.[35]
Environment
In February 2021, Smith wrote to Maryland Transportation Secretary Greg Slater and Environment Secretary Ben Grumbles to express concerns with proposed changes to the state's vehicle emissions testing program. In April, he introduced an amendment to the Clean Cars Act to block the proposed changes, which was added to the bill by the Maryland Senate.[36]
During the 2019 legislative session, Smith introduced the End-of-Life Option Act, which would provide palliative care to terminally ill patients.[40] The bill failed to pass out of the Maryland Senate after state senator Obie Patterson refused to cast a vote on it, causing it to die in a tied 23-23 vote.[41][42]
Housing
During the 2020 legislative session, Smith introduced the HOME Act, which banned discrimination in housing on the basis of source of income. The bill passed and became law.[43][44]
In 2021, Smith introduced legislation that would prohibit landlords from evicting tenants without providing a "just cause" and establish a statewide rental assistance fund.[45] After a bill requiring just-cause evictions became law, he signed onto a letter calling on Governor Larry Hogan to fully fund the bill.[46]
In February 2023, following a gas explosion at Flower Branch Apartments in Silver Spring, Maryland, that killed seven and injured 68 residents, Smith said he would put Governor Wes Moore's appointment of Juan Alvarado to the Maryland Public Service Commission on hold, saying that he wanted to probe Alvarado's role in the investigations following the Flower Branch emergency.[47] Alvarado withdrew his nomination a few days later.[48]
Israel
In November 2023, Smith and eight other state senators signed a joint letter that threatened to defund immigrants rights group CASA de Maryland because it had called for an immediate ceasefire in the 2023 Israel–Hamas war and condemned the "utilization of US tax dollars to promote the ongoing violence."[49]
In June 2020, following the murder of George Floyd and subsequent protests, Smith proposed a package of bills on police accountability and reform, which included bills to repeal the Law Enforcement Officers' Bill of Rights, establish an independent investigative body to handle police misconduct cases, and Anton's Law.[51][52] The legislative package was introduced during the 2021 legislative session, during which all of its bills passed,[53] but were vetoed by Governor Larry Hogan; legislators overrode Hogan's veto shortly thereafter.[54]
In January 2022, Smith criticized Governor Hogan's "Refund the Police" initiative, accusing him of engaging in "bumper-sticker sloganeering" and rebuking his claims that multiple jurisdictions in the state were cutting police funding.[55]
During the 2023 legislative session, Smith introduced legislation that would give the attorney general of Maryland sole prosecutorial power over cases involving police-involved deaths.[56] The bill passed and was signed into law by Governor Wes Moore.[57]
During the 2019 legislative session, Smith introduced legislation that would allow residents to designate their gender as "X" on driver's licenses. The bill passed and became law.[59]
In 2020, Smith introduced the CROWN Act, which would ban discrimination based on hairstyle. The bill passed and became law.[60][44]
During the 2022 legislative session, Smith introduced legislation that would prohibit the prosecution of individuals who come to Maryland to receive abortion services.[61] The bill was reintroduced in 2023 following the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision,[62] during which it passed and was signed into law.[63]
In March 2023, Smith testified in support of the Maryland Child Victims Act, a bill to abolish the statute of limitations on child sexual assault cases.[64]
Transportation
Smith supports the Purple Line[65] and Red Line rail line projects,[17] and has criticized delays toward the Purple Line's completing, warning in June 2020 that future delays would be "devastating for the community".[65] During the 2020 legislative session, he introduced legislation to provide tax credits to small businesses affected by the Purple Line's construction.[66]
Smith opposes proposals to widen Interstate 270 and the Capital Beltway.[67] During the 2019 legislative session, he introduced legislation that would give counties veto power over state transportation projects within their jurisdiction.[68]
Electoral history
Maryland House of Delegates District 20 Democratic primary election, 2014[69]
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