A Republican, New Hampshire's Bob Smith was a high school teacher and realtor before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1985. He moved up to the senate in 1990 and was reelected in 1996. A conservative who was sometimes at odds with the Republican party, he announced in February of 1999 that he would run for president in 2000. He dropped out of the race in October of 1999. Smith lost his senate seat in 2002 and moved to Florida, where he took up the real estate business again. In late 2003 he announced his plans to run for the senate from Florida.
