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How to contact your Senators and Representatives
This is easy
I imagine that most folks active on Substack are familiar with the process of calling your elected representatives in D.C. If you are not - or if you want a quick “how-to” that you can share with someone who may be taking this step for the first time.
Expressing our opinions to our elected officials is the most fundamental thing we can do as citizens at a time like this. We don't get the chance to vote right now but being a citizen is a 365 day a year responsibility.
The important thing when calling your elected officials’ offices is to be prepared. In this article I will share some resources and the script that I used today.
Finding contact information
The list of US Senators can be found on the Senate Website. Click the “State” header on the table to sort by state and then scroll until you locate your senators. The last five digits of the phone number for their DC office is listed in the far right column. To construct the full phone number prefix that with (202) 22. For example I live in North Carolina so this is what I see:
To call Senator Tillis I need to dial +1 (202) 224-6342.
To locate the contact information for your Representative in the House use the lookup tool on the House website. Here you enter your zip code and if your zip code is served by multiple representatives then you will enter your street address.
What to expect
There must be many people calling to express concerns (or support) for what is going on in D.C. right now. I had to dial multiple times to reach my senators’ offices.
Since the call volume is so high and you're calling with a clear message that doesn't need protracted engagement with an aide the person answering your call will probably "take a message for the [senator | congressperson].” Most likely they will not take the time to engage you in conversation but are there to hear your concern and to convey broad areas of concern to senior level staff and ultimately to your elected official.
If you want your points to land you need to be clear and succinct. It is important that you prepare a (very) short script ahead of time. This will also help should the issue you are calling about cause you to be emotional. You will have your thoughts in order and you will be more likely to convey the most important reason(s) for your call.
Prepare a script
When calling it is important to clearly state your concern. To be most effective limit your call to one or at most two points - hopefully related. If your points are not related consider calling twice. This could help the person taking the message when logging your call(s) into their system.
Each elected representative is responsible for the folks in their state (senators) or their district (representatives). For this reason it is important to be clear that you are a constituent by stating the city where you live and asserting that you are a constituent. It isn’t important or relevant to note that you did or did not vote for this person. Remember the important thing is to convey your concern in the most polite way possible. Remember that you want to be heard and you want to clearly convey your concern in a way that can be heard and understood by the staff person.
Sample script
My name is Ken Gahagan. I live in Durham NC. My phone number is (xxx) xxx-xxxx. I would like to make two requests of the [senator | representative]:
Please do everything possible to reign in Elon Musk
Please do everything possible to stand up for the rule of law and the constitution
Even if one agrees with the outcomes Mr. Musk and the President seek it is critical that we work within the law and the constitution to preserve our fundamental structure of governance. Even if one disagrees with the rulings built on the 14th amendment - it is critical to preserve the Article I and Article II separation of powers spelled out in the constitution. It is hard to see recent events out of DOGE and some of the President's executive orders as anything other than unlawful power grabs.
My Representative and I are much more aligned in political ideology so I did have one additional component that I added for that call only:
If there is anything that I can do to support the Representative’s efforts or any meaningful action that I can take please do not hesitate to have someone reach out to me. I am also trying to figure this out on my own but I admit that I am at a loss for meaningful actions to take.
Then regardless of the topic or the level of agreement between yourself and the office that you are contacting - always be gracious and thank the person for their time.
Thank you for your time and for all that you do.
I'm sure they didn't get the last bit down word for word... The important part is to keep the phones ringing and to make the larger points clearly and to be succinct overall.
Even though it is not likely that a call-back is needed for a high-level call such as this it is important to provide your phone number. You never know when someone might want to call for clarity.
Next Steps
At least one person I spoke with (in my Reps office - a Democrat) stated that they are getting many calls expressing similar concerns.
There are many different reasons that may motivate you to call your representative. There will be some that overlap with your profession where you have deeper expertise. In those cases it will be important to find a way to succinctly convey your expertise and to provide a focused but more robust analysis of the situation. In these cases your expertise is likely to be recognized by the person you’re speaking with and they may perhaps flag you as someone that your elected official (or someone in their office) should contact directly for more engagement. You can find some more specific sample scripts for areas such as this on the CallHub website.
I will be calling back again tomorrow with different messages / requests but I will do my best to tie those specific requests back to a request that they stand up for the rule of law as I think this is the most important topic to address after seeing two weeks of Trump 2.0.
Don’t be shy! Politics is a participation sport. If you’re not engaged you’re not doing your part - especially now when the stakes are so high.
Make your script.
Make your calls.
Thank you.