My First Political Phone Call: I’m a little embarrassed to admit this, but yesterday was the first time I ever made a political phone call. I’ve written to legislators, and even created a campaign encouraging others to send their extra holiday cards to legislators asking them to prioritize gun control legislation after a school shooting in 2012. My mom has called legislators; I even have a good model for doing so.
But I was always too nervous to call.
It turns out, I shouldn’t have been.
They expect you to call: Legislators have office administrators dedicated to receiving calls from constituents and marking down your concerns. You can go the extra mile and ask to meet with or speak directly to a legislator, but if you’d like to let a legislator know that you support a specific bill, or are concerned about a certain issue, it takes 5 minutes of your time to call their office and let their staff know.
They track the number of phone calls in support of each issue: Their staff is expecting to receive calls like this, and they keep track of how many constituents call about certain issues. They then give those numbers in summary form to the legislators, who may alter which issues they prioritize based on how many phone calls an issue has received.
They don’t grill you about your stance: Before I called, I read the entire bill I was supporting, and all the talking points on the advocacy group’s website. I wanted to be an expert before I called… but I really didn’t need to be. I volunteered a few sentences about why the carbon pricing issue is important to me, gave my name and the town I live in, they tallied my concern, and I went about the rest of my day.
It was easy. It was fast.
Not many people make phone calls like this, which means my call is even more influential. So if you believe in something (and don’t we all?) you can call your legislator’s office and let them know that you’re a voter in their district and you’d like to see them work on issue ____ . It doesn’t even have to be a specific bill, it could just be letting them know you’re worried about funding for your local school, or climate change in general.
Some tips:
If you’re supporting a specific bill, call the office of the legislator who filed the bill and ask them how you can best support it. They may be able to give you a specific legislator who is undecided and who might benefit from seeing evidence of constituent support. They might tell you that the bill is still being reviewed by a committee, and to call that committee and ask that them to vote the bill favorably out of committee. They can give you specific phone numbers (and they’ll be excited to do it, trust me) and save you the time of figuring out who to call.
If you’re calling a legislator, you can ask their staff person whether that legislator supports the bill as well as leaving a message letting the legislator know why you do (or do not).
Don’t be afraid:
I was worried that I would be wasting someone’s time, that a legislator was going to answer the phone themselves and ask me questions about the bill I couldn’t answer, that I was going to end up in a debate with an office aide… these were all completely unfounded fears.
You don’t have to be an expert on an issue to call and express your concern, and state that you’re supporting a bill. It’s ok to put your faith in an organization or politician who has authored the bill based on all the research and political experience they have, and to support a bill even though you’re not an expert. Become reasonably informed, read a dissenting opinion or two, but you can know you support a cause without knowing every exact legislative detail. It’s a necessary part of our political system – we have to choose who to trust, based on their stated goals and objectives.
I don’t know everything about carbon pricing and carbon emissions, but I know I believe in financial incentives to reduce our carbon footprint, and I support this bill that environmentalists have been working so diligently to get passed. And I can make a five minute phone call, give my name, state my support, and go back to emptying the dishwasher.
You matter. Your voice matters. Your phone calls matter. Your vote matters.
I published this post only a few hours before learning of the UCC Shooting; ten dead, more injured. I’m an advocate for better gun control. If you’d like to learn more about your state’s gun control laws, you can visit smartgunlaws.org which has a map of the United States and information about each state’s gun laws. (I am not familiar with or advocating for this particular group, I don’t know enough about their specific policies, but I am a gun control advocate in general.)
Maybe something to call your legislator about. We’ll never know how many deaths we prevent, but when I think about my family, even one is enough.