Tom Leonard

On August 14, 2019, President Donald Trump announced his intent to nominate Tom Leonard to be the United States Attorney for the Western District of Michigan. On September 9, 2019, his nomination was sent to the Senate. His nomination is currently pending before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Citing frustration from the victims at the lack of disclosure from Michigan State University and a need to find points of failure to inform the policy-making process, Leonard directed two of his committee chairs to launch a legislative inquiry into the situation. In January 2018, those committee chairs requested several previously unavailable records from the school. If the university refused, the committees threatened to utilize subpoena powers to compel the university to cooperate.

Following the federal tax reform effort, House leadership introduced a new plan to cut taxes for Michigan workers, increasing the personal exemption and giving a special credit to senior citizens. The tax cut passed with a large, bipartisan majority on January 25, 2018.

In 2018, Leonard proposed repealing Michigan's driver responsibility fees, which were additional surcharges assessed on top of tickets from driving infractions instituted during the state's mid-2000s budget crisis.   Leonard also wanted to forgive the outstanding fines assessed to Michigan drivers under the program.  Many drivers who incurred the fees and were unable to afford them incurred additional fines for nonpayment and fell further in debt, eventually losing their licenses. By 2017, more than 350,000 residents had lost their licenses due to nonpayment and the additional fines, and 300,000 owed back payments to the state for previous fees.  With the program under growing criticism and thousands losing their licenses weekly, legislators who passed the program into law began to call for its repeal.

Gov. Rick Snyder had signed a bill phasing out the program after 5 years in 2014, but Leonard wanted an immediate end to the fees and a complete forgiveness of past fines.  After a long standoff, Gov. Snyder backed down and agreed to Leonard's plan in early 2018. House Bill 5040, which immediately repealed the driver responsibility fee program and fully forgave the outstanding debts, was passed by the House in early 2018 and later signed into law.  Because of this plan, on October 1, 2018, the 350,000 Michigan drivers who lost their licenses because of the program will be able to reapply and regain their ability to drive legally.

In 2018, Leonard used the budget process to push for the repeal of driver responsibility fees and a reform package centered on new school safety initiatives.  The repeal was signed into law, and the budget included $61 million in funding for school safety programs.

After being elected Speaker, Leonard highlighted mental illness as a top priority for the House during his term, specifically promoting early intervention efforts like he those he saw first-hand in Genesee County.  Leonard created a bipartisan task force to travel around the state listening to testimony on various issues with the state's mental health system and collecting potential legislative reforms to address the situation. The task force completed its tour in late 2017 presented its findings in a public report and began drafting legislation in January 2018. Dozens of those recommendations have since been passed by the state House.

In early 2017, the Michigan House introduced, debated and unanimously passed a series of reforms to expand the state's Freedom of Information Act and open the state Legislature to open records requests for the first time. Leonard pushed for the plan opening his own chamber and the governor's office to the public, including hosting a large, bipartisan public announcement of the bill in the Capitol building. However, opposition from the Senate and the governor's refusal to sign it ended the plan.

The first bills signed into law in Michigan in 2017 were a package of bills to reform the state's prison system and reduce recidivism. A similar package of bills had failed during the previous term.

Before beginning his term as Speaker of the House, Leonard named reforming Michigan's teacher pension system as one of his top priorities for the coming year.  Legislative leaders introduced the plan early in 2017 but were met with resistance from Gov. Rick Snyder.  After a protracted standoff over the state budget, the governor relented and the pension reform passed into law.  Legislative leaders had been trying to reform the system for years with no results until Leonard's plan succeeded.

Leonard also leveraged budget negotiations in both years to gain support for additional policy reforms.  In 2017, Leonard secured reforms to Michigan's underfunded teacher pension system after a long standoff with the governor.  Gov. Rick Snyder did not support that plan, but Leonard and his legislative partners eventually won a change described as the “most innovative teacher pension reform in the nation.”

Michigan had an unexpected $175m budget surplus at the end of 2017, and there was a general consensus among state leaders to use the funding on road repairs.  This would have been in addition to the most recent state budget, which already includes more than $4b in road funding, an all-time high.  Speaker Leonard found a way to spend the money faster and get it out into the roads one construction season earlier, fixing roads one year earlier than they would have been fixed otherwise.  The governor agreed and signed the additional funding into law in March 2018.

In October 2017, Tom Leonard announced his campaign to be Michigan's next attorney general. Leonard would be the first attorney general to have previous experience working in the office. Leonard named fighting violent crime, prosecuting sexual predators and putting a stop to the opioid epidemic as his top priorities. He has been endorsed by the Police Officers Association of Michigan.

Leonard has been reelected to his seat twice, defeating Josh Derke by over 20% in 2014 and almost 30% in 2016. He ran for re-election with jobs and the economy, fiscal responsibility, fighting crime, defending life, the second amendment, agriculture, and senior citizens as issues central to his campaign. Leonard was supported by the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, the National Federation of Independent Business, and the Small Business Association of Michigan.

In September 2013, Tom was honored to be selected as one of the American Conservative Union's "10 under 40" rising conservative leaders from across the country. He was given the opportunity to address the Conservative Political Action Committee in St. Louis, Missouri along with the likes of Governor Rick Perry and Senator Rick Santorum.

Since taking office, Leonard has been a strong advocate for public safety and victims' rights; particularly reforming laws to protect the elderly. The first bill he introduced increased penalties against those that embezzle funds from vulnerable adults. The legislation passed the House and Senate and Governor Rick Snyder signed it into law in May 2013. Other legislation Leonard has sponsored includes protections for victims' families entitled to restitution, as well as children who are preyed upon by sexual predators.

In 2012, Leonard left the attorney general's office to serve his community as its state representative. Leonard won his election and took office in January 2013. During his first term in office, Leonard was elected to the House Leadership team as Majority Caucus Vice-Chair. After serving as the ranking Vice-Chair of the Insurance committee, Leonard was selected as Chair of the House Insurance Committee in his second term. Leonard was also chosen by his Republican Colleagues in 2014 to serve as second-in-line in House leadership as the Speaker Pro-Tempore, a position which allowed him to preside over the House as Speaker during the absence of the Speaker of the House.

Leonard announced on August 11, 2011, that he was running for state representative to represent Michigan's 93rd District. Leonard planned to embody "principled, conservative leadership in the State House" and on bringing his experience as a former prosecutor to stand up for the citizens of Michigan. Leonard received some prominent endorsements in the primary, including Senator Alan Cropsey, Clinton County Sheriff Wayne Kangas, and the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce. After a hard-fought race, he narrowly won the August 7 Republican primary against Clinton County farmer Kevin Kirk by 204 votes. Leonard went on to win the 2012 November general election with 56.6% of the vote and assumed office in January 2013.

Tom Leonard (born April 20, 1981) is a former member of the Michigan House of Representatives who served as Speaker of the House from 2017-2019. Elected in 2012 to succeed term-limited Paul Opsommer, Leonard represented the residents of Clinton and Gratiot County. In November 2016, Leonard was selected by the House Republican Caucus to serve as Speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives, succeeding term-limited Speaker Kevin Cotter. In January 2017, Leonard was formally elected Speaker of the House by a unanimous bipartisan vote of the entire Michigan House of Representatives. Leonard was the 2018 Republican nominee for Michigan Attorney General. He was defeated by Democrat Dana Nessel. In September 2019, Leonard was nominated by President Donald Trump to be the United States Attorney for the Western District of Michigan.