Representative Carson Smith was born in 1967 at New Hanover Hospital in Wilmington, North Carolina and grew up and lived in Pender County most of his life. Carson graduated from Topsail Schools where he played football and worked summers in the family seafood business.
In 1987, Carson became a sworn deputy in Pender County (Highway Patrol/ Sheriff) and completed his Basic Law Enforcement Training class at Cape Fear Community College with the highest academic average and highest firearm qualification scores. He worked in the patrol division until 1989 when he took a position as a police officer with the Town of Topsail Beach under Chief Rickey Smith. In 1991 Carson was accepted into the North Carolina Highway Patrol and attended the 87th Basic School. He was assigned to Durham County and worked there until he returned home to Pender County to accept a job he had long wanted as Emergency Management Coordinator. Shortly after taking that position, the coast of North Carolina began to experience higher than normal hurricane activity, and Carson led the county’s emergency effort through five Presidential Disaster Declarations: Bertha ’96, Fran ’96, Bonnie ’98, Dennis ’99, and Floyd ’99. In 1996, Carson won the General Edward Foster Griffin Award as the Emergency Management Coordinator of the year in North Carolina. He also worked at disaster scenes outside of Pender County including leading a North Carolina firefighter contingent in Florida during the 1998 wildfire breakout.
In 2002, Carson ran for Sheriff, was elected, and was sworn in on December 2, 2002, as the 19th Sheriff of Pender County. He became active in the North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association and was elected as a vice-president in 2014. In 2017 he became the first Pender County Sheriff to serve as President of the North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association. Carson finished that term and served as the Chairman of the Association’s Executive Committee in 2018. In 2014, he was appointed, by Governor Pat McCrory, as a Trustee on the NC Local Government Employees’ Retirement System Board.Mr. Smith was elected to serve in the North Carolina House of Representatives beginning January of 2019, where he currently serves on the following Committees: Appropriations; Appropriations, Justice and Public Safety; Pensions and Retirement; and Judiciary II; Marine Resources and Wildlife Resources.
