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Biography

David is a native of Banner Elk, NC, and a graduate of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, North Carolina's statewide public residential high school for academically gifted students. David earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 1991 and completed his law degree from North Carolina Central University School of Law's competitive Evening Program in 1999 while working full-time. He has been a member of the North Carolina Bar since 1999.

During David's work in the early 1990's as policy and research advisor to Lieutenant Governor Dennis A. Wicker, he was responsible for drafting North Carolina's major revisions to the Small Group Health Insurance Reform laws. He also served as policy director for the State Health Plan Purchasing Alliance Board, coordinating relations with numerous health insurers, agent associations and other major constituencies during the start-up of the Caroliance program, North Carolina's experiment in health insurance purchasing cooperatives. He remains actively involved with the NC Department of Insurance on issues affecting small groups and agents within the state. While in law school, David worked with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, the state's largest health insurer, assisting with improvements in how small businesses buy health insurance and implementing many new reforms such as mental health parity, privacy and small group reform.

David's law practice has focused on helping small businesses and individuals throughout North Carolina with the confusing web of insurance and benefit law, trying to solve simple and complex problems. He has assisted clients with navigating the regulations, laws and requirements that prevent most people from feeling that the system is favorable. He has also authored articles in national magazines on the impact of the privacy rules on agents and employers throughout the United States and speaks before groups nationally on these issues.

This diversity of experience - government, industry, and private practice - makes David the most experienced and most prepared candidate for Insurance Commissioner.

David is a member of the North Carolina State Bar and is licensed to practice before its state and federal courts. He is a member of the Durham County, NC, and American Bar Associations (Labor and Employee Benefits Sections). David is also a very active member of the National Association of Health Underwriters, a nationwide association of insurance agents and brokers who assist the vast majority of businesses and individuals who buy health insurance in NC, serving in leadership positions at the local, state and national levels for the organization. David currently serves as President-Elect of the North Carolina Association of Health Underwriters. He will be President of the organization in 2008-09, the first non-agent President in the organization's history, and is the Chair of the National Association's Bylaws Committee.

David is active in other state and local organizations. He has served as Chairman of the Finance Committee of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics Board of Trustees, Secretary of the Board of Trustees for Duke School for Children, and a member of the Technology Advisory Committee for the North Carolina Bar Association. David formerly served as President of one of Durham's prestigious neighborhood associations, a member of the General Statutes Commission and the State Governing Board for Common Cause of North Carolina. He has also previously served as Chairman of the Durham Area Transit Authority and was one of two David Smiths on the Durham City-County Merger Commission in 2000.

Politically David has been active for years. As an eight-year old, he convinced his life-long Republican grandparents to vote for Jimmy Carter. He registered to vote as a Democrat in one of North Carolina's most Republican counties and cast his first vote for Terry Sanford in 1986. Since he has been active in the Young Democrats of North Carolina, the Durham Democratic Party and the North Carolina Democratic Party. David was the youngest Congressional District chairman in the party's history when elected in 1991 and has served on the State Executive Council and the Executive Committee. He has remained active at the precinct and county level and has only missed one election in the past twenty years of voting.

He has two amazing children, Mary Kathryn (11) and Drew (8). He has won an award for renovations at his office/house from the Durham Historic Preservation Society and has written a number of articles for the Encyclopedia of North Carolina.