George Murrell Smith Jr. (born May 15, 1968) is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

politician and the 61st Speaker of the South Carolina House of Representatives. Born in

Florence, South Carolina Florence is a city in and the county seat of Florence County, South Carolina, United States. It lies at the intersection of Interstates 20 and 95 and is the eastern terminus of the former. It is the primary city within the Florence metropolit ...

, Smith spent the majority of his childhood

Sumter, South Carolina Sumter ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Sumter County, South Carolina, United States. Known as the Sumter Metropolitan Statistical Area, the namesake county adjoins Clarendon and Lee to form the core of Sumter-Lee-Clarendon Tri-county (o ...

, where he attended Wilson Hall School. He graduated in 1986 and enrolled at Wofford College, where he completed his B.A. in Forms of Government in 1990. After earning his J.D. from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1993, Smith began practicing law in his hometown of Sumter: first as a public defender and later as partner at Lee, Erter, Wilson, Holler & Smith, LLC. He was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives from the 67th District in 2001, and has held this seat since. He is a member of the Republican Party. On December 5, 2018, Smith was appointed by Speaker of the House Jay Lucas as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. Smith previously served as chairman of the Health and Human Services Subcommittee and has sat on the House Ways and Means Committee since 2009. In April 2022, he was elected unanimously by the House to succeed Jay Lucas as Speaker of the House of Representatives. He assumed office on May 12, 2022.

References

Living people 1968 births Republican Party members of the South Carolina House of Representatives 21st-century American politicians {{SouthCarolina-politician-stub