[jekdoce]

Advice from a high-level staffer for a Senator:

There are two things that everyone concerned should be doing all the time right now, and they're by far the most important things.

You should NOT be bothering with online petitions or emailing.

1. The best thing you can do to be heard and get your congressperson to pay attention is to have face-to-face time - if they have town halls, go to them. Go to their local offices. If you're in DC, try to find a way to go to an event of theirs. Go to the "mobile offices" that their staff hold periodically (all these times are located on each congressperson's website). When you go, ask questions. A lot of them. And push for answers. The louder and more vocal and present you can be at those the better.

2. But, those in-person events don't happen every day. So, the absolute most important thing that people should be doing every day is calling. You should make 6 calls a day: 2 each (DC office and your local office) to your 2 Senators & your 1 Representative.

Any sort of online contact basically gets immediately ignored, and letters pretty much get thrown in the trash (unless you have a particularly strong emotional story - but even then it's not worth the time it took you to craft that letter).

Calls are what all the congresspeople pay attention to. 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. Republican callers generally outnumber Democrat callers 4-1, and when it's a particular issue that single-issue-voters pay attention to (like gun control, or planned parenthood funding, etc...), it's often closer to 11-1, and that's recently pushed Democratic congressmen on the fence to vote with the Republicans. In the last 8 years, Republicans have called, and Democrats haven't.

So, when you call:

A) 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. If you get transferred to that person, awesome. If you don't, that's ok - ask for their name, and then just keep talking to whoever answered the phone. Don't leave a message (unless the office doesn't pick up at all - then you can...but it's better to talk to the staffer who first answered than leave a message for the specific staffer in charge of your topic).

B) Give them your zip code. They won't always ask for it, but make sure you give it to them, so they can mark it down. Extra points if you live in a zip code that traditionally votes for them, since they'll want to make sure they get/keep your vote.

C) If you can make it personal, make it personal. "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," or whatever.

D) Pick 1-2 specific things per day to focus on. Don't go down a whole list - they're figuring out what 1-2 topics to mark you down for on their lists. So, focus on 1-2 per day. Ideally something that will be voted on/taken up in the next few days, but it doesn't really matter - even if there's not a vote coming up in the next week, call anyway. It's important that they just keep getting calls.

E) Be clear on what you want - "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..." Don't leave any ambiguity.

F) They may get to know your voice/get sick of you - it doesn't matter. The people answering the phones generally turn over every 6 weeks anyway, so even if they're really sick of you, they'll be gone in 6 weeks. From experience since the election: If you hate being on the phone & feel awkward (which is a lot of people) don't worry about it - there are a bunch of scripts (Indivisible has some, there are lots of others floating around these day). After a few days of calling, it starts to feel a lot more natural. Put the 6 numbers in your phone (all under P – Politician. An example is McCaskill MO, Politician McCaskill DC, Politician Blunt MO, etc...) which makes it really easy to click down the list each day.

[wfunction]

Question: what if your representative already supports what you're saying? Like what if they're already Democrat? What can they even do? The Republicans are the ones who seem to be supporting this. That's what's always stumped me about this advice.

[harmegido]

I would also like an answer to this. Most people that are opponents of these sorts of policies live in areas that are represented by senators/congresspeople that have a similar view.

[InitialLastName]

Use the Tea Party strategy: threaten to fund and support primary opposition from the left unless they push back harder.

The GOP only barely has a majority in the Senate. They'll need Democratic support for some things, and as far as I know filibusters are still legal.

[rosser]

I can confirm this. My cousin and his wife met as senior staffers for sitting senators. (They're now both lobbyists; go figure.) This mirrors — even significantly expands — their counsel.

[e12e]

I would imagine it might also help to organise a list of popular topics on a website/forum - eg: Tuesday thousands call about education, Wednesday thousands call about immigration etc?

[palidanx]

Is it worth calling a senator who doesn't represent you? For example, there are some proposals being pushed by senators in NC I don't agree with, but I don't live in NC.

[barsonme]

Not really.

Typically the first thing interns will do is at minimum gather your zip, if not address. Congressional offices receive a fair amount of out-of-district phone calls and non-constituent phone calls will get you a "Thanks for your concerns, have a nice day!"

And, tbh, I sort of disagree with GP's comment about calling every day. Offices might have a high turnover rate, they might not. The offices most definitely do keep track of who calls and they know who the repeat callers are. A lot of time the repeat callers tend to have mental issues (unsure how else to phrase that)—congressional offices get lots of weird phone calls.

I mean yeah, call about issues. It's the best way, other than a face-to-face conversation. (Assuming, too, that the legislator has their CM or an aide with them to take your contact info.) But calling every day will put you on the "ugh, not this guy" list.

[jekdoce]

I have called a couple of times and at bare minimum they asked me the zip code I am calling from. Cold logic would dictate that if you are calling from a zip code outside their voting district, they will ignore you. However, imagine you are getting thousands of calls every single day from all over the country. As a human being, can you really stand to flatly ignore that day in day out?

[cylinder]

Just give a zip code from that state.

[nkurz]

This process seems ripe for abuse. Phone calls do not necessarily come from the geographic area they appear to, and there likely aren't any legal consequences for lying about zip code.

How can this be both the most effective way to influence a politician, and at the same time not be subverted to the point that such feedback cannot be trusted? Are there other checks that are less obvious?

If what you say is true, I'd have to believe that lobbying groups are already abusing this, either by posing as people they are not, paying people to pose, or by paying actual constituents to express concerns on their behalf.

[rdhyee]

I've wondered about this question myself. Wondering whether a financially well-resourced group would just use money to get access as an easier and more efficient approach to influence of a member of Congress. That to simulate an avalanche of calls from concerned citizens by paying people to call is a less financially efficient method to get influence. (I'm just speculating.)

[cryoshon]

my senator and congresspeople are already fully engaged in anti-trump activity (warren, markey)

what else