John T. Smithee

Who is John T. Smithee?

John True Smithee is an Amarillo attorney who has been the Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives from District 86 in the Texas Panhandle dnce January 1985.

Although Smithee succeeded a Democrat, Robert Dwight "Bob" Simpson, who had served for a decade, District 86 is now considered the most Republican state House jurisdiction in the entire state. Voters there cast more than 83 percent of their ballots for Mitt Romney in his 2012 race against the Democrat U.S. President Barack H. Obama.

District 86 includes rural Dallam, Hartley, Oldham, and Deaf Smith counties. Smithee's district office is in Amarillo. He represents that part of Amarillo, some 40 percent of the population, located to the south of the central city within Randall County. The remainder of Amarillo, the seat of Potter County, is represented by Smithee's Republican colleague, Four Price, a lawyer from Amarillo.

Smithee is chairman of the House Insurance Committee and serves on the Higher Education Committee.

Smithee was first elected to the Texas House in 1984, when he was thirty-three.