The logistics of calling your members of Congress
I recently had another conversation with a (different) friend about how to make a difference. (Ping me if you’d like to chat about this, too!) Afterward, she suggested I share some tips on what to say when calling your representatives and senators.
Why call and not email? First, calling signals a higher level of engagement than sending a written message. Second, calling is actually faster than drafting a written message and finding and filling out the contact form on the person’s website. Calling is admittedly less comfortable for many of us, but you get used to it with practice.
Step 1 is to find the DC phone numbers of your representatives and senators and save them to your phone (the embedded link leads to an easy lookup tool). Voila-it’s going to be much easier to call going forward.
Step 2 is to understand what’s important to your representatives and senators. This guide has a wealth of useful information on this and more, including how to make your calls more effective. One key takeaway: the best asks are specific-urge them to “vote for legislation X”, “propose legislation Y”, “make a public statement supporting Z”, and so on. You can also tell them if you’re unhappy with a specific thing they did or did not do (vote on a bill, make a public statement, etc).
I completely agree that these kinds of requests are powerful. But I also think these aren’t the only valuable calls to make, and you shouldn’t let the lack of a specific ask deter you from calling. Simply letting your representatives and senators know what issues matter to you-whether it’s military aid to Ukraine, protecting the rule of law, or ensuring checks and balances on the president-and asking them to do more can have an impact. In my view, calling frequently is far more effective than waiting for the “perfect” moment with a highly specific ask. So don’t overthink it!
Step 3 is to call. If you’ve never called your senator or rep, here are the logistics of what to expect. When you call, one of three things will happen:
- A staffer picks up.
- You get voicemail.
- You hear a message about no one being available and can’t even leave a voicemail (much more likely to happen with senators from what I hear).
In the third case, I would try calling again in a few hours and then in a day or two. If no one picks up and you can’t leave a voicemail, I suggest emailing the rep or senator to share your message and also telling them that you tried calling a few times and were frustrated because no one picked up and you couldn’t leave a message.
But let’s go back to the first two cases. I always start by stating that I’m a constituent from ZIP Code 61822 (of course, use your own). The staffer may also ask for your full address to confirm you’re a constituent. While you can call representatives outside your district, it’s far less effective since you’re not one of their voters. A better approach is to encourage friends in those districts to make the call themselves.
Next, I share my message, whether it’s with the staffer or on voicemail. Maybe I support sending ATACMS to Ukraine, or I’m concerned about Russian disinformation targeting US elections on social media. Whatever your issue, all constituent concerns are valid. If you know of a specific bill in progress, even better-mention it directly.
You can also ask for a response from your representative or senator, which is another way to signal that you really care about the issue. In that case, the staffer will request your email. If you don’t say anything about wanting a response, they will probably tell you that they will pass along your message to the representative or senator and that will be that!
You don’t need to prepare a long speech and of course you should always be cordial, even if you’re calling with criticisms. Most of my calls were under two minutes long, some under a minute. It’s also perfectly valid to ask questions if you get a live person. In my last call to my representative (who is a Democrat), I asked why I haven’t heard about any collaboration between Democrats and moderate Republicans to check Trump’s clear abuse of executive power in some cases. And I asked for a response (because the staffer is of course unlikely to be able to answer a question like that). You can also ask things like “When is your next town hall?” (if the staffer responds that there’s currently no concrete plan to hold one, you should suggest that they schedule one soon).
Ultimately, the most important thing is to make your voice heard-regularly and consistently. So go make some calls and tell me how it went!
Originally published at https://ukraineinsights.substack.com.
