J. Brian Smith

J. Brian Smith is Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Smith & Harroff, Inc., a public affairs, advertising and campaign consulting firm located in Alexandria, Virginia.

Born in Massachusetts in 1950, Smith graduated from Loyola College in Baltimore, Maryland in 1971 with a B.A. in Political Science.  Upon graduation he was employed at the Republican National Committee and worked there through the 1972 presidential campaign.

In 1973, Smith co-founded Smith & Harroff, Inc.  Since then, Smith & Harroff, Inc. has grown into one of the most successful independently-owned strategic communications firms in the nation, having served clients located throughout the U.S., as well as in Mexico, Canada and the United Kingdom.  In 2003 and 2004, The Hill newspaper named Smith & Harroff among the “best of the best” PR firms in the Washington area.

In late 1973, Smith took a leave of absence from Smith & Harroff to serve as Press Secretary to House Republican Leader John J. Rhodes (R-AZ) and worked in this capacity throughout the historic debate over impeachment of President Nixon.  Rhodes was credited by the Joint Committee on Congressional Operations as having one of the most efficient press operations on Capitol Hill (based on a survey of reporters).  Smith rejoined his firm full‑time in 1977.

During his career, Jay Smith has appeared on numerous television and radio programs, usually to provide political commentary.  He has appeared on NBC's Today, William F. Buckley, Jr.'s Firing Line, the Newshour, CNN, Fox News, National Public Radio and many other programs. 

Smith is the author of John J. Rhodes: Man of the House (Primer Publishers, 2005), a biography of the late House leader who passed away in 2003.  David S. Broder of the Washington Post has called the book “a model of political biography.”  Bob Woodward of the Post described it as “the story of one of the Republican Party’s true heroes.”  According to respected congressional scholar Dr. Norman Ornstein, a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, “Anyone who cares for Congress should read this book.” Smith’s book was one of three finalists in the 2006 Benjamin Franklin Awards competition in the category Best New Voice (Nonfiction).

In his capacity as Chief Executive Officer of Smith & Harroff, Inc., Smith presides over a company that one newspaper described as having “a reputation for winning that rivals (Penn State Coach) Joe Paterno's."  Among the many political clients associated with the firm over the years are:  U.S. Senator John McCain of Arizona, U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, former Maine Governor John McKernan, former New Hampshire Governor John Sununu, former Governors of Arizona Fife Symington and Jane Hull, and numerous others.

U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) once described Jay Smith as "The smartest, pure political mind I've met."

Jay Smith resides in Falls Church, Virginia.