Mike Freiberg
Mike Freiberg (born September 23, 1976) is an American politician serving in the Minnesota House of Representatives since 2013. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), Freiberg represents District 43B in the central Twin Cities metropolitan area, which includes the cities of Golden Valley and Robbinsdale and parts of Hennepin County. Early life, education and career Freiberg was raised in Golden Valley, Minnesota. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in government and Russian from Georgetown University and a Juris Doctor from the William Mitchell College of Law. Freiberg was a legislative aide to U.S. Representative Jim Oberstar from 1999 to 2001. From 2005 to 2006, he was a committee administrator for the Minnesota Senate. He was elected to the Golden Valley City Council in 2007 and served until his election to the state legislature. Freiberg has worked as an adjunct professor for William Mitchell College of Law. He is an attorney for the Public Health Law Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Minnesota House of Representatives Freiberg was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2012, and has been reelected every two years since. He first ran for an open seat created by legislative redistricting. In 2018, Freiberg endorsed fellow state representatives Erin Murphy in the DFL gubernatorial primary and Ilhan Omar for Minnesota's 5th congressional district. Freiberg chairs the Elections Finance and Policy Committee and sits on the Commerce Finance and Policy, State and Local Government Finance and Policy, and Ways and Means Committees. He was an assistant minority leader from 2017 to 2018. From 2019 to 2020 Freiberg chaired the Government Operations Committee, and from 2021 to 2022 he chaired the Preventative Health Division of the Health Finance and Policy Committee. Election policy Freiberg sponsored legislation for Minnesota to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, under which it would award its electoral votes to whichever presidential candidate wins the most popular votes nationwide; the compact goes into effect only when states that together have a majority of electoral votes have joined it. He has argued that the Electoral College has "become less and less representative". Freiberg authored legislation to close campaign finance disclosure loopholes, including increasing campaign finance reporting requirements for local and municipal elections. Freiberg supports legislation that would raise the threshold for major-party status in Minnesota, saying the current system is "susceptible for mischief". The bill faced opposition from third parties as well as former Governor Jesse Ventura, who ran under the Reform Party in 1998. Health care policy In 2015, Freiberg wrote a bill requiring parents to talk to a doctor before parents opt their children out of vaccinations for diseases such as measles and chickenpox. The bill was supported by doctors from the Mayo Clinic, but failed to move forward during Republican control of the House. He also authored legislation that would support outreach programs to teach communities about the value of vaccinations and combat misinformation. Freiberg has authored "right to die" legislation that allows Minnesotans facing terminal illnesses to have