Are you looking to turn your despair into action? Here’s how to make effective calls to your U.S. senators and representatives. This advice comes from a high-level Senate staffer via Debi Jackson on Facebook, and from the Indivisible co-founders — former congressional staffers who know how things work in those offices.
After in-person meetings, CALLS ARE THE BEST WAY TO CONTACT your Members of Congress (MOC). MOC have offices in DC, but they also have offices in their home district. Target phone calls to your local office and you’ll have an easier time getting their attention. And while it should go without saying, only contact your own representatives.
For Senate Issues:
You should make 4 calls a day per issue/nomination:
2 each (DC office and your local office) to your 2 Senators
Put the 4 numbers in your phone which makes it really easy to click down the list each day.
Warren DC Office 202 224-4543, MA Office 617 565-3170
Markey DC Office 202 224-2742, MA Office 617 565-8519
For House Issues:
You should make 2 calls a day per issue/nomination: the DC office and the regional office.
Put the 2 numbers in your phone which makes it really easy to click down the list each day.
Why call both offices? They aren’t cross-referencing lists
Why call and not write or email? Calls are what all the congresspeople pay attention to. Snail mail letters are too slow, especially with security screening. Emails are often not tallied. If they are not tallied, they are worthless.
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. She said that 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:
- If you leave a message- be clear and concise. One issue per phone call. Follow the directions about what information to leave. Do not use profanity.
- If you get a person, be sure to ask their name, and tell them you want a reply. Keep track.
- Bonus but rare: 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 that person’s name, and then just keep talking to whoever answered the phone.
- They may get to know your voice or name — it doesn’t matter. The people answering the phones generally turn over every 6 weeks, so a new person will soon be tallying messages or answering the phone.