State House Outman unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for
Michigan House of Representatives in the
70th district in 2008. He was defeated in the
primary election, coming in fourth place among six candidates. Thomas A. Ginster won the Republican nomination, Outman ran again in 2010 and defeated Huckleberry. Outman was elected to two additional terms in the state House, In 2012, Outman voted in favor of a "
right-to-work law" that barred labor unions from collecting fees from workers represented under
collective bargaining agreements. In 2013, he voted against
Medicaid expansion bill, which passed on a 76–31 vote (original version) and then a 75–32 vote (final version). Medicaid expansion was supported by almost every Democrat, but Republican members were split, with a little more than half voting no and the rest voting yes.
State Senate He was ineligible to run for reelection to the House in 2016 due to
term limits, and was hired as a legislative staffer (district liaison) by Republican state Senator
Judy Emmons at the end of 2016. During the
COVID-19 pandemic in Michigan, Outman criticized Governor
Gretchen Whitmer for coronavirus restrictions. In the 2020 presidential election,
Joe Biden defeated
Donald Trump; Biden
won by three percentage points in Michigan. Trump subsequently launched an
effort to overturn the election result and remain in power. In January 2021, Outman was one of 11 Republican Michigan state senators who promoted
Trump's false claims of fraud in the 2020 election; in a letter sent to Congress on January 6, 2021, ahead of the
formal counting of the electoral votes, Outman and the other members of the group baselessly suggested that there were "credible allegations of election-related concerns surrounding fraud and irregularities." As of 2022, Outman was chair of the Department of Health and Human Services sub-committee budget and the Environmental Quality Committee. Outman's 33rd state Senate district originally encompassed Montcalm,
Clare,
Gratiot,
Isabella, and
Mecosta counties. In the
2020 redistricting cycle, the district was redrawn to cover seven counties in
West Michigan: all of Montcalm and
Newaygo counties and portions of
Kent,
Ionia,
Lake,
Muskegon, and
Ottawa counties. Outman is seeking reelection in 2022 in the new district. During his campaign, he accused Whitmer of attempting "to centrally plan our society." ==Personal life==