In 1998, Smith defeated incumbent State Legislator Joyce Hillman 55%–45%. In 2002, he won re-election to a second term unopposed. Since Nebraska voters passed Initiative Measure 415 in 2001, he was term-limited.
Committee assignments
He sat on the Natural Resources and Building Maintenance committees and was the vice chairperson of the Transportation and Telecommunications committee. Smith served as Vice Chair of the Military and Veterans’ Affairs Committee and as Chairman of the Four State Legislative Conference in 2001.
;2006 Smith ran for the open seat in the 3rd district in the 2006 election. Three-term incumbent Tom Osborne gave up the seat to make an unsuccessful run for Governor of Nebraska. Smith won the Republican primary with 39% of the vote in a field of five candidates. He faced DemocratScott Kleeb, a ranch hand and Yale graduate, in the general election. Approximately one-third of the funding of his campaign came from members of the Club for Growth, a fiscally conservative group that supports tax cuts, limited government, school choice, and advocates eliminating all agricultural subsidies and the elimination of the US Department of Agriculture. For a time, Smith was presumed to be a prohibitive favorite in this overwhelmingly Republican district. The 3rd is one of the most Republican districts in the nation; presidential and statewide candidates routinely win it with 70 percent or more of the vote. The 3rd is extremely difficult to campaign in and has few unifying influences. It covers nearly, two time zones, and 68.5 of Nebraska's 93 counties. However, Kleeb raised more money than any other Democrat had raised in the district in decades. Overall, the race was the most expensive in the district since it assumed its current configuration in 1963. As the race become more competitive than expected, it received late national attention from the Housecampaign committees. President George W. Bush also made an appearance in the district two days before the election to campaign for Smith—a sign that the national party was very concerned about its chances in what had long been presumed to be a very safe Republican seat. In the end, Smith won by 10 percentage points, taking 55 percent of the vote to Kleeb's 45 percent. This was the closest a Democrat had come to winning the district in 16 years; in 1990, Republican Bill Barrett only defeated fellow Unicameral member Sandra Scofield by 4,400 votes. It was also only the third time a Democrat had come reasonably close to winning this district in its current configuration; besides Barrett's narrow win in 1990, Virginia D. Smith only won her first term by 737 votes in 1974. Besides Bush's visit two days before the election, Smith likely rode the coattails of GovernorDave Heineman, who won many of the counties in the district with 80 percent or more of the vote in his bid for a full term. ;2008 Smith won the primary with 87% of the vote. He won re-election to a second term, defeating Democrat Jay Stoddard 77%–23%. ;2010 Smith won the primary with 88% of the vote. He won re-election to a third term, defeating Democrat Rebekah Davis 70%–18%. ;2012 He won the Republican primary with 82% of the vote. He won re-election to a fourth term, defeating Democrat Mark Sullivan 74%–26%. ;2014 He won the Republican primary with 68% of the vote. He won re-election to a fifth term, defeating Democrat Mark Sullivan for the second time 75%–25%. ;2016 He was unopposed in the Republican primary and won with 100% of the vote. He was unopposed in the general election and won re-election to a sixth term with 100% of the vote. ;2018 He won the Republican primary with 66% of the vote. He won re-election to a seventh term, defeating Democrat Paul Theobald 77%–23%.
