Samuel George Coppersmith (born May 22, 1955) is an American attorney and former politician who served as the

U.S. representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

for Arizona's 1st congressional district from 1993 to 1995. He is a member of the Democratic Party.

Early years

Coppersmith was born May 22, 1955, in

Johnstown, Pennsylvania Johnstown is the largest city in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 18,411 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located east of Pittsburgh, it is the principal city of the Metropolitan statistical area ...

. He graduated ''

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

'' from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in 1976, and then worked as a

Foreign Service Officer A Foreign Service officer (FSO) is a commissioned member of the United States Foreign Service. FSOs formulate and implement the foreign policy of the United States. They spend most of their careers overseas as members of U.S. embassies, cons ...

with the U.S. State Department, assigned to the U.S. Embassy in

Port of Spain Port of Spain ( ; Trinidadian and Tobagonian English, Trinidadian English: ''Port ah Spain'' ) is the capital and chief port of Trinidad and Tobago. With a municipal population of 49,867 (2017), an urban population of 81,142 and a transient dail ...

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago, officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean, comprising the main islands of Trinidad and Tobago, along with several List of islands of Trinidad and Tobago, smaller i ...

. He returned to the U.S. then earned a J.D. from

Yale Law School Yale Law School (YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824. The 2020–21 acceptance rate was 4%, the lowest of any law school in the United ...

in 1982. After law school, he clerked for Judge William C. Canby Jr., of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and served as an assistant to the Mayor of Phoenix.

House of Representatives

In 1992, Coppersmith won the Democratic primary in Arizona's 1st District and faced three-term Republican Jay Rhodes in the general election. Coppersmith won the elections and became a U.S. Representative from the Democratic Party for Arizona's 1st Congressional District.

Senate race

In 1994, Coppersmith gave up his seat after only one term to run for the U.S. Senate when Dennis DeConcini retired. In the Democratic race to replace the retiring DeConcini, Rep. Sam Coppersmith won with a razor-thin margin of 32 votes (81,547 votes vs 81,515 for Richard Mahoney). He subsequently lost to fellow Congressman

Jon Kyl Jon Llewellyn Kyl ( ; born April 25, 1942) is an American politician and lobbyist who served as a United States Senator for Arizona from 1995 to 2013. Following the death of John McCain in 2018, Kyl briefly returned to the Senate; his resignatio ...

by 14 points.

Private law practice

After leaving Congress, Coppersmith spent two years as the chairman of the Arizona Democratic Party. He is an attorney specializing in real estate law and a managing partner of the law firm of Coppersmith Schermer & Brockelman PLC. He has a

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

called LiberalDesert.

References

External links