Tom Smith, a multimillionaire who entered statewide Pennsylvania politics over the last decade, passed away on Saturday just a few days before his 68th birthday.
Smith won the 2012 GOP Senate nomination but lost to Senator Bob Casey by a 54% to 45% margin.
Afterwards, Smith flirted with runs for Governor and Congress but decided against them. It was Smith’s unexpected withdrawal from a PA-9 GOP primary last July when we were first made aware that he was having health problems.
Pennsylvania Republican Party Chairman Rob Gleason released the following statement:
“We knew Tom Smith as a candidate, supporter and committed citizen who deeply believed in the promise of the Commonwealth and our country. He was a success as a farmer, a businessman, and, most importantly, as a husband, father and grandfather to a wonderful family. Tom Smith lived his life to the fullest.”
“On behalf of the Republican Party of Pennsylvania, I extend my heartfelt sympathies to his wife, Saundy, and all of his children and grandchildren. He will be deeply missed.”
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12 Responses
A very nice, decent guy. Sympathies to his family.
This is so sad. He ran for the right reasons and handled himself so well. A loss for the Commonwealth.
He ran a great campaign to defeat Corbett’s hand-picked crony and gave Bob Casey a scare. Big loss for PA.
centpa – he spent his money turning his property in southwest pa into a community center and gymnasium for the kids in his neighborhood – he adopted 4 kids (all syblings from the same family) so that they could stay together – he was a wonderful man who believed in limited government – he was not mean spirited about anything political – but he believed in a certain philosophy and he lived out his generosity and humility everyday. he understood that the govt is bloated and that taxing more rarely yields better results. limited govt conservatives are not against the middle class – they are there to protect them from things like increased property taxes for schools because while education funding is very important, our kids never seem to get any better educated in comparison to the rest of the civilized world with each additional dollar we spend. there are spenders and there are intellectually honest thinkers. tom was the latter.
Sorry to hear this. A good guy.
I’m sure he was a nice man, but it is too bad that he spent his money working against the middle class rather than calling for higher wages, better benefits and strengthening Social Security.
I’m proud to have called him a friend. Pennsylvania and the United States need more guys like him in office and less like Bob Casey Jr. and Bill Shuster.
Met him a few times during senatorial campaign; genuine throughout, and a quality learner.
Most unpretentious guy I ever met. Best to his family.
So tragic and sad. Best wishes to his family and friends.
I didn’t agree much with his politics, but he seemed to be a nice man and genuine. I was always impressed that he and his family opened their home, adopting four children so that they could stay together – I think that speaks a lot to one’s character. His family have my condolences.
Tom was a great guy whether you agreed with him politically or not.