How to take effective action with your elected officials

Most of us are struggling with how to take effective action in these turbulent times. We’ve heard from congressional staffers that social media likes/shares, online petitions and emailing your reps are not effective. Here’s what they suggest instead:

Attend face to face events like Town Halls, Office Hours and Lobby Days. Ask questions and push for answers.

Call your representatives regularly – daily if you can. Click here to find your representative and their contact information. Letters and emails do not generate the attention a call does. Every single day, the Senior Staff and the Senator get a report of the 3 most-called-about topics for that day at each of their offices (in DC and local offices), and exactly how many people said what about each of those topics. They’re also sorted by zip code and area code.

• When calling the DC office, ask for the Staff member in charge of whatever you’re calling about (“Hi, I’d like to speak with the staffer in charge of Healthcare, please”) — local offices won’t always have specific ones, but they might.
• Identify yourself as a constituent and give them your address.
• If you can make it personal, do that. “I voted for you in the last election and I’m worried/happy/whatever” or “I’m a teacher, and I am appalled by Betsy DeVos,” or “as a single mother” or “as a white, middle class woman,”
• Pick 1-2 specific things per day to focus on. Don’t try to fit everything into one phonecall — they’re figuring out what 1-2 topics to mark you down for on their lists.
• Be clear about what you want from the call — “I’m disappointed that the Senator…” or “I want to thank the Senator for their vote on… ” or “I want the Senator to know that voting in _____ way is the wrong decision for our state because… ” or “I would like a response from the Congressman on this issue.”
• If you aren’t comfortable coming up with your own “script” for your calls feel free to use an app such as 5 Calls or other sources. After a few calls, it starts to feel a lot more natural.
• Use the 5 Calls App to make/track your calls or put your reps numbers in your phone under P for Politician so it’s easy to click down your list.

For topics of National interest, we recommend the free app ‘5 Calls’. For locally relevant topics, contact your local elected officials.

Follow local organizations you care about for their calls to action. For example, Moms Demand Action, League of Conservation Voters, ACLU of Virginia.