Meet John
John Freeman has worked in the public sector and in the private sector to bring about social and economic change to help strengthen our communities and State. He was elected to the Michigan House of Representatives and served for 6 years as a State Representative. In the private sector he has worked as a policy organizer and as an attorney at law.
Throughout his career, John has worked to enact solutions to very difficult policy matters by bringing the best minds together, building coalitions, and engaging the public.
For the last two years, John as been working to reform the health care system because he understands that to reform our economy and make Michigan employers competitive in a global market, we must bring down health care costs, make the system more efficient, and provide affordable quality health insurance for people. John Freeman is currently the Michigan Director of Health Care for America Now, an organization that is working to enact national health care reform legislation.
In 2008, John was the Executive Director and Chairman of the Health Care for Michigan, a campaign to push for health care reform at the state level that brought together a broad range of individuals and organizations.
In 2006, John was the Director of Michigan Needs a Raise, the short-lived ballot initiative campaign to raise the minimum wage in Michigan. Low wage workers had not seen a wage increase since 1996, making it extremely difficult to provide for themselves and their families. After organizing 22 press conferences on the same day to launch the campaign, the resulting surge of support compelled the Michigan Legislature to raise the minimum wage to $6.95 in October 2006, and then $7.15 in July 2007.
From January 2002 to December 2005, John was the Director of the Michigan Home Care Campaign, a campaign to strengthen the long-term care system in Michigan for seniors and people with disabilities, by organizing homecare workers in Michigan to join the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). This resulted in winning wage increases and reducing the high turnover rate of home care workers which is stabilizing the workforce and improving the quality of care provided.
After leaving the State Legislature at the end of 1998 because of term limits, John moved to Washington D.C. and worked at the Center for Policy Alternatives (CPA), a bi-partisan policy and leadership development organization. From 1999 to 2001, John worked with state legislators in the Midwest in developing legislation to improve the quality of life in communities and in developing strong legislative leadership through the Fleming Fellows leadership program.
John was elected to the Michigan House of Representatives in November 1992 and served 3 two-year terms representing three southeast Michigan communities—Madison Heights, Hazel Park, and Royal Oak—before being term-limited. During John's tenure, he served on the Labor, Judiciary, Taxation, Civil Rights, Environmental, and Corrections committees.
He authored a number of bills that passed the Michigan House of Representatives including the State Earned Income Tax Credit, the expansion of the Bottle Deposit Law to cover juice and water drinks, and enacted into law an amendment to the Michigan Clean Air Act which prevents the operation of any new incinerators from being located in the immediate vicinity of schools, neighborhoods, hospitals and nursing homes. John also pushed for increased drug treatment of convicted inmates to reduce the recidivism rate and save the State tax dollars.
After graduating from law school at the University of Detroit in 1989, John joined and practiced law at O'Connor & Youmans in Detroit from 1990 to 1992, specializing in employment discrimination, personal injury, and labor law. John has been a member of the Michigan Bar since 1989.
After graduating from the University of Michigan in 1980, John became a community and labor organizer with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now from 1981 to 1986, working in different communities in Texas, South Dakota, New Mexico and Louisiana on issues to improve the lives of people living in those communities.
John is married to Amy Chapman, and they have a wonderful 9 year-old son Jared, and live in Madison Heights. John and Amy are very active in Jared's activities and his elementary school. John was born in Ann Arbor and was raised in Birmingham, Michigan. He is the son of Nancy and Fred Freeman, both long-time Michigan residents, with Fred being a retired attorney from the Dickinson Wright law firm in Detroit.
