Call (Or Write) Your Legislators
Yes...it works.
Just recently, I attended a meeting where I was surrounded by fellow progressives. The committee’s mission isn’t around political activism as such but the topic comes up fairly regularly in a variety of ways. Committee members were decrying a recent Supreme Court decision that would have an impact on our work. I mentioned that a bi-partisan bill had passed the US House that would, in effect, negate the decision for the time being. Having been passed in the House, the bill is now in the Senate. I spoke up, recommending that we all call our two US Senators to insist that they support and vote for the bill.
Well, that idea got shot down. Immediately. It wasn’t that a vote on my informal motion went against me. It was more that several members of the group began railing against the value of calling our Senators.
“That never does any good.”
“I’ve called and I never get a live voice. It’s always ‘Leave a voicemail, please.’”
“I just get a form, boilerplate letter in response when I’ve called.”
“At least you’ve gotten something…I’ve never heard back from them when I’ve called or written.”
“Calling them is just a waste of time.”
Now, you might think that such naysaying is, perhaps, unique to that particular group. But I’ve gotten similar responses to my suggestion to call our representatives in other meetings of progressives. Ironically, some of those other groups did have a specific mission around political activism, e.g., voter registration, canvassing, sending postcards, attending rallies, or phone banking. I’m puzzled as to why activists who are devoted to such worthwhile endeavors would denounce one of the very easiest, least time consuming, most effective measures, that of calling (or writing or emailing) our representatives to insist that they actually support our values and interests.
The notion that contacting representatives isn’t effective simply isn’t true. Is Bernie or Jon going to turn their ideologies around because you or I call them Monday morning? Of course, not. But, believe it or not, there’s actual research on the topic and it shows that contacting representatives does, indeed, make a difference.
One study showed that randomly selected legislators who received emails in support of a specific bill were 20% more likely to have voted for the bill.
Another interesting study selected a group of legislators at random, then called some of them 22 times, others 33 times, and still others 65 times about a specific bill. Legislators who received calls were 12% more likely to support the bill than those who received no calls. Here’s the really interesting factor: The number of calls a legislator received didn’t make much of a difference. Legislators who received even one call about the bill were more likely to vote in favor of it.
Another study showed that most legislators think their constituents, as a whole, are more conservative than in fact they are. On some issues, legislators can be off by as much as 20%. If we’re not calling or writing, that mistaken impression isn’t likely to change and legislators will vote conservatively, thinking that they are doing a good job of representing their districts.
The position that contacting legislators doesn’t work, then, is simply wrong.
All that said, how you contact your representative and what you say is very…very…important.
Scheduling meetings with legislators works best of all. Yes, it’s going to be difficult, if not impossible, to get a meeting with Mike DeWine, Bernie, or Jon. But getting a meeting with someone on your US House representative’s staff isn’t difficult. The same with your Ohio House or Senate representative. And direct meetings with your city or county representatives can be scheduled with a phone call or email.
Hand-written, self-composed letters work well. So do self-composed emails. In fact, I gather that letters and emails (in that order) work even better than phone calls for more general messages to representatives, i.e., “I support common sense gun control laws for the following reasons….”
A few things to keep in mind when composing letters or emails:
As mentioned, compose your own copy.
Shorter is better than longer.
Stick to one topic or issue. If you have more topics that you want to cover, write another email or letter.
Do some research on the topic and include the results in your message.
NEVER, EVER send a form letter or email that you copied and pasted from somewhere. They get ignored.
Phone calls are effective as well, especially when they are about specific upcoming legislation. Again, keep the call short and to the point. Add a bit of information to support your position.
Here’s a template:
“Hi, this is Rick Bohan. I live in Akron, so I’m a constituent. I’ve just learned that a bill that would eliminate mail in voting is being considered [Author’s note: I just made that up as an example.]. Please tell the legislator that I’m ardently opposed to such a bill because it makes it harder for many of our seniors to vote. Thanks for listening.”
It’s vital that we contact our legislators regularly about issues and legislation that are important to us. It makes little sense to work hard to get voters registered and to go to the polls, then refuse to stay in touch with the candidates those voters choose. It makes even less sense when we understand that getting in touch with our legislators, even those with whom we disagree, actually works. Don’t let anyone convince you to take this important and effective tool out of your tool bag.