ACTION PLAYBOOK:
Contact Your Member of Congress
Let’s take action.
⚡️ This playbook has two tracks. If you’re ready to Level Up!, follow the lightning bolt.
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Urge your members of Congress to act on a climate policy issue and hold them accountable as your elected representatives.
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Learn who represents you in Congress
Choose a climate policy solution
Make a phone call
Send a personalized email
Tag on social media
Ask a friend to do it too
1. Learn who represents you in Congress
First, look up your members of Congress at congress.gov. All residents of U.S. states have two senators and one House representative. It’s not a good idea to contact members of Congress that aren’t yours. This strategy often backfires and can cause an office to close off constituent channels if they’re being hounded by outside organizers.
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It’s useful to know more about your member of Congress before you reach out so you can be more strategic with your messaging. Use this Learn Who Represents You worksheet to learn about their committees, their climate record, and more.
2. Choose a policy topic
Next, choose a policy topic you’re passionate about. What do you want Congress to act on? Spend a few minutes familiarizing yourself with your chosen policy solution. Identifying a specific bill (including the bill number!) will help staffers communicate your request more specifically.
3. Make a call
Once you’ve chosen a policy priority and identified a bill, customize the call script below to fit your request. When you’re ready, call the congressional switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to your senator or representative. You can also call their offices directly by looking them up on congress.gov. If they don’t pick up, leaving a voicemail is just as effective! Constituent contact is a numbers game, so our goal is to be counted individually among the constituents who care about a specific bill.
Here’s an easy call script you can use:
Hi, my name is [NAME], a constituent from [YOUR CITY/TOWN, STATE].
I’m calling to urge you to support [YOUR CHOSEN BILL].
This bill [WHAT DOES IT DO?].
As a constituent, this is extremely important to me because [WHY DO YOU CARE?].
Thank you so much for passing along my message.
4. Send a personalized email
Advocacy research tells us that emails to Congress are effective only if they’re personalized. If your email is a completely copy/pasted template that is also sent by 100 other people, it won’t be read.
Find the email address for your representative’s office on congress.gov. Use the call script above as a template to fill in talking points that resonate with you and add any additional detail that you think would make a compelling letter. If you know your member of Congress is already a climate champion, don’t hesitate to thank them for their efforts thus far.
💡 Some tips:
Identify yourself as a constituent.
Stick to one issue and make a specific request.
State any relevant expertise on the topic.
Be heartfelt and persuasive to convey authenticity.
5. Tag your reps on social media
Tagging your members of Congress on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook can help grab their attention and elicit a response. You can think of the Tweet as a condensed version of the script/email you created above. It helps to be respectful and lighthearted while urging them to act on something very tangible and specific. When you’re done crafting your Tweet, don’t forget to tag their handles!
6. Ask a friend to do it too
Network effects are powerful. Persuading friends and family to take climate action is a crucial step toward changing cultural norms and making real progress. Now that you’ve taken this action, send a note to a friend along with this playbook asking them to send an email or make a call to their own members of Congress. Simplify the process for them by forwarding your own email as a model and the contact information you found if they live in the same state or district.
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A great way to take this step to the next level is by considering which members of Congress you’d want to target and inviting a friend to take action who also happens to be their constituent. If you're campaigning for a policy change in your own state or congressional district, it's strategic to involve another local resident to amplify pressure.
However, if a different location or member of Congress is the focal point for your policy solution, try to choose someone who lives in that jurisdiction. We’ve all witnessed high-profile congressional negotiations with one or two notable holdouts. If you live in Connecticut but a senator from West Virginia is on the fence about supporting a climate bill, your Connecticut friends can wait—text your West Virginia bestie immediately!