 Freeman received a Bachelor of Arts from Rutgers University in 1970 and a Juris Doctor from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1974.He is the son of Jane Shields and Orville Freeman, who was a Minnesota governor and Secretary of Agriculture under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party, Freeman was elected to the Minnesota Senate in 1982, representing the old District 40, which included the city of Richfield and a portion of Bloomington in Hennepin County.