He was born in York County, South Carolina, and currently resides in Rock Hill, where he is a real estate developer at the Warren Norman Company, a business founded by and named after Norman's father. He and his wife, Elaine have 4 children and 17 grandchildren.
In 2004, Norman was elected to serve District 48 in the South Carolina House of Representatives, winning a three-way Republican primary outright with 52% of the vote. After one term, Norman chose not to run for reelection so he could become the 2006 Republican candidate in an unsuccessful bid for U.S. Congress in South Carolina's 5th congressional district against John Spratt. On November 3, 2009, Ralph Norman defeated Democrat Kathy Cantrell in a special election to reclaim his old seat.
In December 2016, President Trump nominated Mick Mulvaney as Director of the Office of Management and Budget. At the time, Mulvaney represented South Carolina's 5th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives. Shortly after this nomination, and in anticipation that Mulvaney's seat in Congress would be vacated once he was confirmed to the OMB by the United States Senate, Norman announced his intention to resign from the South Carolina House of Representatives to run for U.S. Congress. On May 16, 2017, Norman won a Republican primary runoff election against Tommy Pope by a margin of 0.6%, triggering an automatic recount per South Carolina state law. Following that recount, the South Carolina State Election Commission certified Norman as the Republican primary winner on May 19, 2017. With 35,425 votes cast, Norman received 17,823, while Pope received 17,602, a 221-vote difference. Having secured the Republican nomination in the primary election, Norman went on to face the Democratic nominee, Sumter attorney Archie Parnell, in a special election held on June 20, 2017. In that special election, Norman received 51.0% of the votes while Parnell received 47.9%. Norman was sworn into office on June 26, 2017.
2018 general election
On March 19, 2018, Congressman Norman filed for re-election for with the South Carolina Election Commission. Facing no Republican primary challengers, Norman secured the Republican party nomination following the South Carolina primary election held on June 12, 2018. Meanwhile, Archie Parnell, the Democratic challenger that Norman defeated during the 2017 special election, chose to run again for South Carolina's 5th Congressional District seat in Congress. Parnell defeated three Democratic opponents to win that party's nomination, and went on to face Norman once again in the 2018 general election. The 2018 general election in South Carolina was held November 6, 2018. Norman won re-election, receiving 57.0% of the votes to Parnell's 41.5%. Norman's margin of victory was significantly larger than his margin of victory over Parnell in the 2017 special election, held 17 months earlier. However, state and national Democrats had distanced themselves from Parnell after news broke that he'd abused his first wife. Committee assignments
Committee on Oversight and Reform
*Subcommittee on Government Operations
Science, Space, and Technology Committee
*Subcommittee on Energy
*Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight
Committee on the Budget
Caucus memberships
Republican Study Committee
House Freedom Caucus
Congressional Solar Caucus
Congressional Western Caucus
Congressional Waste-Cutters Caucus
Sexual assault joke
On September 20, 2018, at an election debate for the Republican nomination for the 5th congressional seat of South Carolina, Norman joked about sexual assault allegations made against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. He kicked-off the debate asking the audience, “Did y’all hear this latest late-breaking news on the Kavanaugh hearings? …Ruth Bader Ginsburg came out saying she was groped by Abraham Lincoln.”
Firearm incident
While at a public meeting for constituents on April 6, 2018, Norman engaged in a conversation with representatives from Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. During that conversation, Norman placed his personal.38-caliber Smith & Wessonhandgunon the table to illustrate his belief that "gun violence is a spiritual, mental or people issue, not a gun issue." According to Norman, the loaded firearm was visible for "maybe a minute, or two minutes" and was never pointed at any individual. However, representatives from MDA who were seated at the table with Norman, said the firearm was visible for "five to 10 minutes" and that they felt unsafe. Norman holds a Concealed Weapons Permit issued by the State of South Carolina. The incident sparked widespread criticism of Norman. On April 9, 2018, South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Trav Robertson wrote a letter to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division requesting felony charges against Norman for his conduct. The case was originally assigned to South Carolina 16th Solicitor Kevin Brackett. However, Brackett recused himself citing a "personal friendship" with Norman. The issue was then forwarded to South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, who declined to press charges stating that Norman's actions did not "warrant a criminal investigation" or constitute "a prosecutable offense."
In 2019, Norman joined with a group of other House Republicans who sought to reinstate Rep. Steve King on House committees. King lost committee positions due to a series of racist remarks.
