Political career
Freeman joined the Indianapolis City-County Council in March 2010, [3] after being selected by Republican precinct committee members to fill a vacancy created by the resignation of Lincoln Plowman. [1] Freeman was a member of the council for six years, [2] representing a district in the southeast side of the city. [1]
He was elected to the Indiana State Senate in 2016 from District 32, [4] [5] Freeman received 31,173 votes (58.2%),defeating Democratic nominee Sara Wiley,who received 20,184 votes (37.7%). [6] Freeman succeeded longtime Senator Patricia L. Miller,who chose to retire after 34 years in the General Assembly. [4] [2] [7]
Freeman describes himself as a "solid Republican" [7] and a conservative. [3] In 2016,weeks after the killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile,Freeman dismissed the Black Lives Matter movement,saying on a segment on Full Frontal with Samantha Bee ,"I just don't think it's helpful to the country. I don't know what their purpose is." [4] The comments were raised in 2020 by Democratic state Senator Eddie Melton,who asked Freeman to drop his reelection bid over the comments,a request that Freeman rebuffed. [4]
After Republican Senator Ron Alting sponsored a hate crimes bill in the state Senate in 2019,seeking to allow judges to increase sentences for bias-motivated crimes (Indiana is one of just five states without such a law),Freeman introduced an amendment that gutted the bill,removing the specified protection categories—race,religion,sex,sexual orientation,gender identity,and disability—and replacing them with a generic definition of "bias." [8] After the amendment passed on a 33–16 vote,Alting voted against the bill as amended,honoring a pledge not to support any hate-crimes bill that omitted protections based on sexual orientation or gender identity. [8]
In the state Senate,Freeman has been a prominent and avowed opponent of plans for an expansion of Indianapolis's IndyGo bus rapid transit system. [9] In 2018,in response to mass shootings at schools,Freeman called for the stationing of police officers at every school,saying,"We need to harden these targets and we'll put a stop to this." [10] For three consecutive years,Freeman sponsored legislation to criminalize "revenge porn";the measure was enacted in 2019. [11] Along with other Republican lawmakers,he supported a bill in 2020 to ban local governments in Indiana from enacting tenant protection regulations;the bill was backed by landlords and opposed by tenant advocates. [12]
Freeman defeated Democratic nominee Belinda Drake in 2020 to retain his seat in the Indiana General Assembly. [4]
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