Max was born and raised in Sacramento. He and his wife Nika now own a house in Chico. Max is a fifth-generation Californian and proud of his Central Valley roots. His great-great-grandfather Edwin Smith was the pastor of Chico’s First Methodist Episcopal Church during World War One. His brother lives in Redding, and lost his house to the Carr Fire in 2018.

Max served in the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division and did two years in Iraq in Baghdad and Kirkuk. He went on daily raids and patrols “outside the wire” as part of a four man squad and survived numerous IED and mortar attacks. He earned his Combat Infantry Badge in a firefight during an  attempt to rescue a female Italian journalist who had been captured by terrorists. Max ‘s leadership potential was recognized immediately by his superiors, and he was quickly promoted to Sergeant, becoming an acting squad leader during his second deployment. Even after leaving Active Duty, Max continued to put his skills and experience to use in the Army Reserves and he is now the First Sergeant of a Civil Affairs Company.

After completing his deployments, Max attended community college and then transferred to UC Berkeley.  There he earned his degree and met his wife, Nika, the daughter of a Cambodian refugee who came to America after the communist forces of Pol Pot seized his homeland. He graduated with High Honors in 2011.

Max joined the Foreign Service in 2012 as an economic generalist and served as a Foreign Service Officer in Honduras, Mexico, Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, and Washington, DC.  In Honduras, he was the lead American on agricultural issues, supporting the regional USDA Foreign Agricultural Service Officer based in Guatemala. In Mexico, he worked on visa issues and was the officer in charge of protecting the rights of Americans arrested in Baja California. His last overseas tour as an FSO was to the Sinai Peninsula, where he served not as a diplomat but instead as an observer with the multi-national force enforcing the 1982 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty.  In Washington, DC, Max worked with USDA and USAID on our food security support to the United Nations. In 2019, he took a leave of absence from the Foreign Service to pursue a PhD in Policy Analysis at RAND, focusing on the intersection of diplomacy and development in the Western Pacific and Eastern Europe.

Max is a political centrist, who believes that the best solutions to America's problems wil be found in the middle. He fought for America in Iraq, and he will fight for District One in Washington. As an infantryman, he dodged IEDs and kicked down doors. As our Congressman, he will find common ground with Democrats and Republicans and fight to ensure the allocation of eight billion federal dollars to forestry and water projects in our district. It’s time to send a fighter to Congress, a soldier who has shared danger with Republicans and Democrats alike, , an American patriot who knows that we can work together to achieve common goals if we do not allow ourselves to be paralyzed into inaction by our political differences.