[1] Outman unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for Michigan House of Representatives in the 70th district in 2008.
[5] Thomas A. Ginster won the Republican nomination,[5] and was in turn defeated in the November 2008 general election by Mike Huckleberry, the first Democrat to hold the seat since 1932.
[1] His campaign manager in 2012 and 2014 was James Lower, who in 2016 was elected to the state House from the 70th district, after Outman was term-limited out.
[12] 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.
[3] Outman cosponsored, with Senator Marshall Bullock, bipartisan legislation to ban minors from using electronic cigarettes (vaping).
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.
"[17] As of 2022, Outman was chair of the Department of Health and Human Services sub-committee budget and the Environmental Quality Committee.
[2] Outman's 33rd state Senate district originally encompassed Montcalm, Clare, Gratiot, Isabella, and Mecosta counties.