How many times have you heard: “Call your representative” or “Go out and protest” or “Sign this online petition” or “Tweet at your representative using a hashtag #soandso”? Have you ever wondered if any of these things even work? Is your voice actually being heard?
I have a few tips for you. As a resident office intern for Rep. Mike Doyle during the summer of 2019, I was mainly responsible for handling constituent concerns. Through that experience, I saw and learned about the most, and least, effective ways to reach your representatives. Here are some things you should do and some you should avoid to make sure your voice is heard.
DO call
Avishek Acharya. (Photo courtesy of the author)
If you are like me, you’d rather text than call. But calling your congressperson is still the best way to make sure you are getting their attention. I took many calls as an intern, but there are times when everyone in the office answers phones — including the elected official you’re ultimately trying to reach. If there’s an intern, they’ll be the first to pick up the phone. If the intern is busy, next, you’d speak to the staff that work the front desk. Then the senior staff. And finally, if everyone else is busy answering calls, you may get the representative directly on the line.
It’s likely that the moment a staff person hangs up, they’ll ask others in the office if they’ve gotten similar calls today. If they have gotten a large number of similar calls, then there is a good chance the congressperson will hear about the issue.
DO email
Emails usually get organized into batches by the subject matter and issue at hand. The more emails get put into a categorized batch, the more they’re likely to get noticed. If there is a specific policy concern that blows up a batch it is organized in, then conversations are sure to happen around the office. Those conversations will eventually make it into a meeting with the congressperson.
DO go to town halls
Staff working for congressmembers spend months planning town halls, where constituents get face-to-face time with their elected representatives. If you live in a competitive district — and more than likely you do as even safe seats can have competitive primaries — you can directly challenge the common wisdom of the congressperson. They know that you, a voter, hire them and can fire them. If there is an angry person that can fire you, you will listen to what they have to say. That said, congressmembers must consider competing interests and decide which decisions best represent the constituents who elected them.
DO be nice
Staffers are public servants — servants who are not paid well enough to live comfortably in an absurdly expensive Washington D.C. As with every other public-facing job, working for a politician can be destructive to your mental health, especially if people living in the district scream at you for eight or more hours a day. Besides, if you, a voter, come out sounding angry, staffers will take you less seriously because they’ll be more likely to think of you as just another fanatical person. Be polite.
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(Lead art by Natasha Vicens/PublicSource)
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