Udall Family - Fourth Generation

Fourth Generation

Thomas Stewart "Tom" Udall, Stewart Udall's son, was the first of David King Udall's great-grandchildren to hold political office. He was a practicing attorney and ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a Democrat in New Mexico in 1984 and 1988. In 1990 he was elected Attorney General of New Mexico, a position he held from 1991–99. He was finally elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from New Mexico's 3rd District in 1998, and he served as Representative from 1999–2009. During this period he served in Congress beside his cousins Mark Udall and Gordon Smith (see below), marking one of the very few times in history when three members of the same family have served in Congress simultaneously. In 2008 he was elected to the U.S. Senate from New Mexico in a landslide victory. He took office in January 2009.

Gordon Harold Smith, Jesse Udall's grandson through his daughter Jessica Udall Smith, was the next to venture into politics. His father, Milan Dale Smith, Sr., was an Assistant Secretary of Agriculture, and he later built a successful frozen foods empire. Gordon obtained a law degree and initially pursued a career as an attorney, before later taking over the frozen food business. In 1992, he was elected to the Oregon State Senate, as a Republican. He became president of that body in 1995. In 1997, he was narrowly defeated when running for the U.S. Senate in a Special election to replace Bob Packwood. Later that year he won election to Oregon's other U.S. Senate seat, the only time anyone has ever run for the Senate twice in the same year. He served in the Senate from 1998–2009. In 2008, he was narrowly defeated for reelection, following a shift in Oregon politics over the preceding decade toward the Democratic Party. He was the last remaining Republican to hold statewide office at the time. Most Udall politicians have also been either Hunt or Lee descendants. Gordon Smith is unique in being descended from both additional lines.

Mark Emery Udall, Morris Udall's son, pursued a 20 year career as an Outward Bound instructor and director before launching a political career in 1996 with a successful campaign for the Colorado State House of Representatives as a Democrat. He served a single term there, before a successful bid for the U.S. House from Colorado's 2nd Congressional District in 1998. He held that office for ten years. In 2008 he was elected to the U.S. Senate from Colorado, and he was seated in January 2009. Raised Presbyterian, Mark is the first non-Mormon politician in the family. With Barack Obama's nomination of Ken Salazar as Secretary of the Interior, Colorado's other Senate seat was vacated January 20. 2009, and Mark became Colorado's senior Senator after just three weeks in office.

Milan Dale Smith, Jr., Gordon Smith's brother, was nominated to the federal judiciary by George W. Bush in 2006. He was unanimously confirmed by the Senate (including his brother), and he currently serves on the U.S. Ninth Circuit.

David King Udall, son of Mesa councilman David K. Udall, serves as a Superior Court Judge in Maricopa County, Arizona (since 2001).

Mike Lee and Thomas R. Lee, though not Udalls, are second cousins to Mark and Tom Udall and Gordon Smith; their father, Rex E. Lee, a well-known scholar of Constitutional Law and Solicitor General from 1981 to 1985, was a first cousin of Stewart and Morris Udall; Mike Lee serves as a United States Senator from Utah (since 2011), and Thomas R. Lee is an Associate Justice on the Utah Supreme Court.