Samantha Smoot coordinates the federal and state legislative efforts
for the Human Rights Campaign and federal campaign work for HRC
and the HRC political action committee.
Smoot,
a veteran political activist and organizer, has worked on electoral
and issue advocacy campaigns in the United States for the last
18 years. In 2005r, while based in Beirut, Lebanon, with the National
Democratic Institute, she designed and ran a project to equip
women in Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt and Palestine with the skills
to run successfully for public office and to promote women's political
participation.
From
1998-2004, Smoot served as president of the Texas Freedom Network,
an organization of 22,000 members that defends religious freedom
and individual liberties. As a leading advocate for religious
pluralism, public education and progressive public policies, she
appeared on MSNBC, "ABC Nightly News," "The O'Reilly
Factor," National Public Radio and "Donahue," and
was quoted in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and The
Christian Science Monitor.
Smoot
has worked with candidates for political office at all levels
of government in 26 states in the United States. She served on
the political staffs of EMILY's List, an organization that helps
elect Democratic women to the U.S. Congress and Senate, and the
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
In
1995, Smoot worked on Capitol Hill as administrative assistant
to Rep. Ken Bentsen, D-Texas. Prior to that, she worked on the
campaigns of Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and Sen. Debbie Stabenow,
D-Mich.
A
lifelong activist, Smoot has worked on campaigns for women's reproductive
rights, political participation and domestic violence prevention.
She completed her bachelor's degree in history and literature
from Harvard University in 1987 and is a graduate of W.T. White
High School in Dallas. Smoot's permanent home is in Austin, Texas.
Quotations
"There
is a clear, well-coordinated effort to undermine the teaching
of evolution in Texas classrooms."
"Religion
should be taught in the home and places of worship, rather than
in public schools."
"Intelligent
design is just creationism dressed up in a laboratory coat."
"It
[the Discovery Institute] says that the theory of evolution can't
explain the diversity of life on this planet and that there must
have been a designer. That is a very valid and commonly held religious
perspective, but not one that is upheld by scientific evidence.
Therefore it's not one that belongs in science classrooms."
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