Herb Smith had to delay our interview the day we were set to meet at Syriana Cafe and Gallery in Old Ellicott City. His boss had a last-minute work thing that came up. I was so not upset! That happens when you work as hard as Herb. I told him it was no problem and that we could meet lathe ter at same place. When he did show up his bent over backwards apologizing.
“Robert, I’m so sorry. Man, I’m so sorry,” he said, rubbing his head and reaching out a hand to shake mine. The kid in Herb struck me then, and a couple of days later I saw him horsing around with Wille Flowers Howard County NAACP [Title], and I thought, I love this childlike enthusiasm Herb is brimming with!
I was just honored to get some time to talk to him about his role as Administrator of the Maryland for Biden Facebook page. I told him so. His shoulders relaxed and he smiled that big, Herb Smith smile. When I’d been there earlier I got my usual felafel and tabouleh. I forgot the fries, so this time I ordered some and my guilty pleasure, soda.
We sat down at a table overlooking Main Street and got to talking.
Memories of Old Ellicott City
“I used to come here all the time,” Herb told me. Right on that block was Ross’ Barber Shop, one of the few places in Howard County a while back, he explained, where an African-American man could get a haircut by someone who knew what he was doing. “I’m a big Ellicott City-head,” he said, laughing. It turns out he’d met Byron Macfarlane, Register of Wills for Howard County and a good RoCo friend, there once too, before it was Syriana, to secure his endorsement for Donna Edwards, whom Herb was working for at the time.
Related: See what Reverent Regina Clay told me about HoCo’s spirtual life.
“It’s not like I think he’s so much better than everyone else,” Herb said of his support for Vice President Joe Biden and his campaign for Democratic nominee for President in 2020. “I love all the candidates.” He told me he thinks the election, the run-off with President Donald Trump next year, will be decided in small communities and Midwestern areas where getting out the populace to vote will be the deciding factor. Herb thinks Biden can get those people to vote for him. Whoever the nominee ends up being, Herb will support that person one hundred percent. Kamala, Warren, whoever–expect to see Herb in the candidate’s tee shirt. Herb has good friends working on behalf of every one of the Democratic candidates. Byron, in fact, whom Herb is close to, is a die-hard Mayor Pete Buttigieg supporter. Robbie Leonard, Secretary of the Maryland Democratic Party and ultra-Democratic activist in the state, Herb told me, is an Elizabeth Warren supporter. “I have friends who are big Bernie people.”
“I don’t take this stuff personally,” Herb said, nodding from left to right. “I don’t get caught up in it. I laugh when people lose friendships or get in heated arguments with people who support candidates other than their own.” Don’t mistake this mature attitude of Herb’s for a lack of passion. He’s been an activist since he was in elementary school! I’ve seen him with my own eyes take on a local right-wing activist at a political forum. He believes strongly in progressive values and will defend them to the end.
Herb’s parents, a politically active pair, took him to the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco a few years back. He met Vice President Biden there.
I asked Herb why he began the Maryland for Biden Facebook page. I anticipated he’d say something along the lines of what Robbie Leonard said at a recnt Columbia Democratic Club meeting. He advised that if you wanted to start advocating on behalf of one of the Democratic candidates now, see if she has a social media presence. If not, start accounts for her. That’s just what Herb did for Biden.
“With social media, a lot of the older activists–and younger ones–don’t have a chance to get involved with the campaign on that type of scale. So they look online for information,” Herb explained looking out at a passing car on Main Street. “It’s a way for people in-state and out-of-state to connect and to stay informed on different aspects of the campaign–activities, polling numbers, speeches, different policy points.”
Rasha, one of the owners of Syriana, brought over my order of Syrian fries and placed it gently next to me.
Keep Up or Get Left Behind
How on Earth, I asked Herb, does he keep up with the endless news updates on what Biden’s up to in the age of the 24-hour news cycle.
“With social media, it’s really not that hard,” he said. “I know a lot of people on the campaign, too.” We both exhaled a big sigh then, at the same time, in response to the brutal heat that day. But, hey, that’s summer in HoCo. Herb told me there’s a Howard County for Biden group too. He is, of course, involved with that too. It’s had its first meeting already, with a second one planned for sometime in the middle of July, he told me. He encouraged me to tell the readers of this website to go to bidenformaryland.com to sign up for updates on the local campaign.
Herb wants the Maryland for Biden Facebook page to inform members on the campaign, keep them informed on what’s going on with the campaign, to be a clearinghouse for information on the campaign, and for them to organize for the campaign in their own communities. Not to mention, Herb added, he hopes it’ll help people meet people of their own political ilk. His work as a member of the Howard County Democratic Central Committee has allowed him to meet many-a-friend from different backgrounds, too, he said. I’d like to think I’m one of them.
What Herb’s always loved about political organizing has been meeting people–many of whom have become close friends–from different backgrounds.
“It’s been rewarding getting to know the people on another level who you worked with on different campaigns. Just bringing people together, that’s always been my joy in working with campaigns,” he said, reaching down to steady his drawstring knapsack. Biden he reminded me, was Vice President for eight years. People know him and his work from the Obama years. Sometimes, he said, this is an asset for Biden, but sometimes people tell Herb they think he’s too old or not “new” enough. To him, the Biden campaign is a hybrid of older-younger, though. So many of Biden’s supporters, based on what he’s seen, were high-school-age when President Obama and Vice President Biden were in office.
“I’ll see these kids now, and they’ll be digital directors,” he said, laughing, “And I’m thinking, ‘Man, I knew this kid when he was 16!”
Herb is always sure to make it clear that he is not an official spokesperson for the Biden campaign, though. When his page gets Facebook messages saying he needs to deliver a message to Biden on their behalf or to criticize Biden and hold Herb somehow accountable or some of the other inevitable input he gets from people, he reminds them that the page is an information hub. It’s not an official
The Herb said what I’ve co-opted as my own catchphrase now.
“I’m an A to B guy, I always tell people in politics,” he said. So he connects people with other people who can help them, if he can’t. “If you need to meet somebody, if you need to talk to somebody, if you need somebody to give you official information, I can help you.” And judging by the three phone calls he got in our hour-long chat, I didn’t doubt him for a second. Herb also makes sure that when people assume he has all sorts of in-depth, insider knowledge about Biden’s campaign that he disabuses them of that notion. If someone demands to know why Biden made a mistake in a debate, for example, he’ll tell them, well, he had a bad debate.
Herb, as he told me early on in our chat, admires all the candidates. He predicts Mayor Pete, as he called him, has a brilliant future in politics. “Man, that guy’s 35-years-old and he just raised $14 million in a few days. Those young overachievers!” We both laughed at that. Yeah, they annoy me too, I assured him through my laughter and a nibble on a fry.
It’s the Dems He Supports, Overall
Herb also told me he may have started the Maryland for Biden Facebook page, but he expects Biden to earn support, respect, and loyalty. “I think it’s good the way Kamala came at him,” he said of Kamala’s now-infamous argument onstage with Biden during the [DATE] debate. He expects Biden, and anyone in politics, to be accountable for his positions, his words, his behavior. “I’m a Democratic loyalist, but I don’t do things because they’re politically right. I do them because they’re just right.” If someone is doing something wrong, even if he supports her, Herb told me, he’s going to hold her accountable. While Herb’s Government Relations Director for a health care IT firm, he predicts that in the future, whatever job he has, wherever he lives, he’ll still be holding people accountable–including himself. Herb belongs to Facebook groups that support several different candidates, he said. He wants to have a place to get information on them, as he hopes his Maryland for Biden page will do for others.
“You can see, ‘I do like this, so I will support him’ or ‘I don’t like that, so I won’t support her,'” he said.
Upon rising every day, Herb makes his bed. I told him I do the same. It sets the tone for the day, after all. He goes for a run then, at the encouragement of his sneakers, who talk to him: “Come on, Herb. it’s time to get it in.” I told him he better stop making me laugh while I’m chewing.
“Herb was always optimistic. He had great energy and enthusiasm,” Delegate Vanessa Atterbeary (D-13) told me of her friend and colleague. Herb was the campaign manager for her first run for office in 2010 as a delegate representing District 18 in the Maryland General Assembly.
Herb’s proud of getting so many people involved, he told me. “Everyone, from politicians on down, is looking at me like, ‘So, you’re working for the Biden campaign?’ I tell them, no, I’m just a super-volunteer.” I thought to myself when he said this, anyon who knows Herb knows he’s a super-volunteer! But I too mistakenly thought he had an official post in the Biden campaign. If he could, Herb would do more advocacy for Biden. He’d encourage people to come out to volunteer, especially those who want to but may need help, like a ride to an event, or even an extra push, like the food at an organizing meeting. “Even hotel rooms for people coming from a long way away, I’d love to fund that if I could.”
Herb was born and raised in HoCo. He’s a Howard High School Lion. He has an older sister, Xylina, whose name he couldn’t pronounce when he was a toddler so he called her “Shaleena” instead. Xylina’s now the head of the legal department for HBO. He said he comes from an accomplished family. I agreed!
He went to Clark Atlanta University an HBCU in Atlanta, Georgia, after he graduated from Howard. After receiving his Bachelor’s in political science, he began working on his Master’s in public policy at the same school.
“I got a little sidetracked then,” he said, and I nodded to indicate I knew exactly what he meant. He got a job at Hands On Atlanta, which he described as one of the first Americorps programs President Bill Clinton began. He taught in the classroom, then he worked in the community for a set number of hours each week. “That’s when I first got into community organizing outside the political arena.”
The Future’s a Mystery
Herb said multiple people have asked him lately if he thinks Biden will make Sen. Kamala Harris (D-??) his Vice Presidential running mate. “Maybe!” he tells them. Especially at that level, he explained to me, you don’t take this stuff personally.
Thanks for reading! Check back with us each here at rocoinhoco.com every week as Robert, Colleen (and pup, Moses) get to know the many facets—one each week–of this prismatic place called Howard County. We want to take you along with us, so follow us on Twitter at @rocoinhoco, join our Facebook group, and follow us on Instagram at @rocoinhoco.