Adam Smith

Adam Smith was adopted as a baby and raised in SeaTac, where his father worked on the airport ramp and belonged to the Machinists union. Smith credits the stability and benefits of that job with helping his family get ahead.¹ He and his wife, Sara, raised two children, and he has coached youth soccer.¹

He worked nights loading UPS trucks while attending college, ultimately graduating from Fordham before earning a law degree at the University of Washington. As a Seattle prosecutor and temporary judge, his work included domestic violence and impaired driving cases.¹

Smith won a state Senate seat at 25 and later chaired its Law and Justice Committee. He was elected to Congress in 1996 and became the senior Democrat on Armed Services, overseeing military policy and Pentagon spending.¹ His congressional work also includes proposals to expand housing near transit and limit large investors' ownership of single family homes.² He voted in July 2026 to block $3.3 billion in military assistance to Israel, citing its actions in Gaza and feedback from constituents.³

He supports abortion rights, a higher federal minimum wage, union organizing, apprenticeship pathways and a prohibition on congressional stock trading. Protecting Puget Sound and communities affected by airport noise and pollution are also priorities.² Smith faces Republican Doug Basler, whose background includes advertising and local party leadership.⁴ Basler has made several earlier congressional runs.⁵