In this week’s edition of Streaks Running for Seats, The Carroll News sat down with Sean Freeman ‘19 to discuss his career beginning at John Carroll to his hopes of running for the United States Congress.

Freeman, a former resident of suburban Chicago, has been living in the Cleveland area for eight years. By day, he works at AML Rightsource, working hard to create anti-money laundering solutions. By night, he can be found behind the bar at O’Reilly’s Pub. It’s a wonder then he had time to campaign, but it all really began for Freeman with his Jesuit education.

Freeman spent his high school years at St. Ignatius High School in Chicago and knew John Carroll would be a great fit for him. JCU offered a challenge and an opportunity to grow in the real world. In class, this translated to hard political science, communications, PJHR, and business courses, and outside of class, it was the Campus Ministry and their Immersion trips.

“I went on three trips, first to Florida, second to the US-Mexico Border and finally to El Salvador, in a reverse of the journey many immigrants take to America,” Freeman said. “What struck me was that the people I talked to only wanted a $0.05 raise, and safe fields for women to work in, without abuse. They worked for $0.45 a bushel and that’s all they wanted”.

Freeman came to the realization that in the face of farm conglomerates that grow the lettuce, tomatoes and onions used on every Taco Bell taco and McDonald’s burger, there was little care for these people. In response, he wanted to help make basic necessities easier for those asking for the simplest of needs, and the first place to start with that service journey was at home.

When Freeman graduated and started a career in business, he knew that would just be one part of his life. In his mind to be “men and women, for and with others” involved taking care of ones’ self and one another.

So, after starting a career at AML Rightsource, he took time to volunteer with Cleveland mayoral candidate Justin Bibb, where he learned many of the campaigning skills that help him today.

Looking to get a balanced perspective, Freeman worked for Republican campaigns in Ohio, as an interoffice liaison. Though both were positive experiences, Freeman was not totally enamored with the party dynamics he encountered with either Democrats or Republicans.

After much consideration, Freeman decided to start his own campaign, independent of the parties, where he could work unhampered by red tape. Freeman would neither run as a Democrat nor a Republican, he’d simply run as himself thus the Freeman For Congress campaign was born.

Now as a candidate for the Congress representing Ohio, and only 700 signatures away from getting on the ballot, Freeman has three key aspects of his platform.

First, Freeman wants to help struggling families better themselves, with reading programs, internet access expansions and a higher working wage. Second, he wants to incentivize businesses to work on a more employee-friendly model where, one day some of the social safety nets we are familiar with today can be funneled into the programs above. Finally, he wants to make voter registration synonymous with driver’s license renewal and simplify the process for voters, while making election day a federal holiday.

These programs, in Freeman’s mind, come from his immersion days and the freedom he had to learn, work and grow at John Carroll. More than anything else, Freeman wants to “represent his community, and be with others as much as for them”.

As such, this Blue Streak seems to be honoring his commitment to service by running to hear local needs in Congress. To Freeman, the Jesuit lessons he took from his time at JCU still hold true and he hopes to incorporate these lessons into his campaign.