51 Facts About Tommy Norment

Tommy Norment was elected to the James City County Board of Supervisors where he served as chairman before being elected to the Virginia Senate in 1991.

Similarly, Senator Tommy Norment holds the records for the longest serving Republican senator as well as the longest serving Senate Republican Leader in the history of the Commonwealth.

Tommy Norment served on the Commerce and Labor, Judiciary, Rules, and Finance and Appropriations Committees.

Tommy Norment served as a member of the Governor's Advisory Council on Revenue Estimates, the Virginia Crime Commission, the Virginia Conflict of Interest and Ethics Advisory Council, and the Major Economic Impact Project Approval Commission.

Tommy Norment serves as Chairman of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation and is the only individual to have served in this role more than once.

Tommy Norment has served as a member of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation's board of trustees.

Tommy Norment further serves on the Hampton Roads Board of Directors for TowneBank, chairs the Williamsburg Board of TowneBank, and serves as a member of the College of William and Mary Board of Visitors.

Tommy Norment is a graduate of James Blair High School, the Virginia Military Institute, and the Marshall Wythe School of Law at the College of William and Mary.

Tommy Norment graduated from the Virginia Military Institute where his budding spirit of leadership was nurtured amidst the institution's rich traditions.

Tommy Norment wholeheartedly embraced VMI's storied customs, none more emblematic than the Honor Court.

Eager to uphold the principles of justice and advocate for those in need, Tommy Norment passionately pursued a career in law.

Tommy Norment graduated from the Virginia Military Institute and received his JD degree from William and Mary School of Law.

Tommy Norment opened his first law office in Newport News where his path to becoming a prominent attorney was marked by his dedication to high-stakes criminal defense cases.

Parallel to his burgeoning legal career, Tommy Norment was actively involved in local volunteer work through the College of William and Mary.

Tommy Norment remains committed to giving back to his community and fostering a sense of responsibility towards the greater good.

Tommy Norment served as an adjunct professor of law at William and Mary Law School.

Tommy Norment served as on-campus attorney, and counselor and attorney to the president of William and Mary.

Tommy Norment entered into his first marriage to Mary Carlisle Humelsine, daughter of Carlisle Humelsine, the longtime president of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

Tommy Norment decided not to seek re-election in 2023 and officially retired from the Senate of Virginia on January 9,2024.

Tommy Norment led the Virginia Senate Republican caucus since 2007.

In 2002, Tommy Norment introduced and passed the legislation that implemented dedicated school safety personnel with law enforcement authority.

Tommy Norment was successful in orchestrating and passing the 1994 Omnibus Alcohol Safety Act, which serves as the foundation for all of Virginia's current DUI laws.

Tommy Norment, who has worked tirelessly to improve traffic safety in Virginia, introduced groundbreaking distracted driving legislation in Virginia in 2002.

In 2013, Tommy Norment again strengthened Virginia's DUI laws by making all subsequent felony DUI offenses a class 6 felony with a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of one year with the same driver's license restrictions as for a third or subsequent DUI offense within 10 years, which means they can petition for reinstatement after five years since their last conviction.

In 1999, Tommy Norment created the Virginia Tourism Authority, which is the leading entity in Virginia on tourism promotion to this day, although it is called the Virginia Tourism Corporation.

In 2004, Tommy Norment introduced SB652 to increase the transient occupancy tax paid by tourists visiting the Historic Triangle region.

In 2008, Tommy Norment changed the state code to ensure local Historic Triangle businesses had permanent representation on the Williamsburg Area Destination Marketing Committee, which is the entity responsible for managing the region's tourism funding.

In 2009 with SB1406, Tommy Norment repealed the entire existing charter of the City of Williamsburg and rewrote it from scratch to provide a new charter containing powers typically granted to cities.

In 2018, Senator Tommy Norment introduced legislation that significantly increased the amount of funding available for advertising and marketing the Historic Triangle as a tourist destination through the creation of a Historic Triangle sales and use tax.

All of these tourism and marketing initiatives spearheaded by Senator Tommy Norment contribute, in turn, to the revenue available to Historic Triangle localities.

Two years later, Tommy Norment introduced SB1420 to establish the mechanism for establishing the rates for default electric service after the capped rate period ends.

In 2012 with SB 413, Tommy Norment helped open the door in Virginia for energy companies to seriously invest in renewable energy research and development.

In 2018, Tommy Norment was the first Republican to introduce legislation decriminalizing marijuana in the Commonwealth.

An advocate for victims of violent crime, Tommy Norment introduced and passed in 2002 legislation creating a statewide facilitator for victims of domestic violence within the Office of the Attorney General.

Two years later in 2004, Tommy Norment created the Virginia Domestic Violence Victim Fund.

Tommy Norment introduced and passed legislation during a Special Session in 2021 that clarifies the Parole Board and its chairperson are required to notify the Department of Corrections and the Commonwealth's attorney at least 21 business days prior to an inmate's release and that no release date shall be set sooner than 30 business days from the date the Department of Corrections receives notification from the Chairman of the Parole Board.

Tommy Norment was successful in pushing through a series of changes that were unpopular among General Assembly members in an effort to foster more transparency for the citizens of Virginia.

In 2014, Tommy Norment introduced SB649 which established the Virginia Conflict of Interest and Ethics Advisory Council composed of 15 members with the objective of reviewing and publishing the disclosure forms filed by lobbyists and persons subject to the conflict of interests acts and provide formal opinions and informal advice, education, and training.

Tommy Norment amended the legislation in 2015 to lower the gift threshold to $100, clarifies that attendance at a widely attended event of more than 25 persons does not constitute a gift, and requires disclosure of gifts or entertainment in excess of $50.

In 2016 Tommy Norment amended the Conflict of Interest Acts to ensure lobbyists were subject to the same disclosure requirements as government employees and legislators.

Tommy Norment carried dozens of budget amendments throughout his tenure to provide increased funding for university programs, staff, and capital project improvements.

Tommy Norment secured funding to build the Virginia Peninsula Community College Historic Triangle campus, the funding for the Integrity Science Center and the School of Education at William and Mary, and a number of new buildings at Virginia Military Institute.

In 2019, Senator Tommy Norment carried legislation raising the standard deduction on income taxes for the first time in more than a decade.

In January 2001, Tommy Norment was charged with driving under the influence after he was pulled over on Interstate 64 outside Richmond with a blood alcohol content of 0.10.

Tommy Norment was responding to allegations from an unsatisfied legal client, Christopher Burruss, who attempted to extort him by revealing Tommy Norment's affair.

Rather than comply with Burruss's demands, Tommy Norment turned the evidence over to the State Bar.

Tommy Norment reported that his marriage had recovered from the affair, but he later divorced.

The lobbyist's name, Angie Bezik, was withheld from news reports until 2018, when Tommy Norment announced he was engaged to marry her.

Tommy Norment restricted press access to the Virginia Senate in 2016, a move seen as catalyzed by the coverage of his affair.

In February 2019, it was revealed that Tommy Norment was an editor of the 1968 Virginia Military Institute yearbook that showed students in Ku Klux Klan attire and blackface and with racially offensive nicknames, which came to light in the context of the 2019 Virginia political crisis.

Tommy Norment pointed out that page 236 of the same yearbook shows he supported VMI's racial integration in 1968, and that he led an effort to enroll women there in 1997.