So you’ve woken up. You understand that you haven’t been participating in our participatory democracy, and that this is part of the reason we’re in the mess we’re in. You know enough to call your senators about unconstitutional bans and unqualified cabinet nominees. But what else do you do?
In addition to being activists at the national level, we have to be full participants in our democracy at the state and local levels.
This weekend I got to attend an event hosted by Missouri House Representative Stacey Newman called #GOV101, which broke down how and why we all have to pay attention to politics at the state level. (Short answer re: why: some of the most hateful and harmful legislation in this country happens at the state level. We have to be vigilant.) I wanted to share what I learned to hopefully make it easier for others who are looking for ways to resist the white supremacist/misogynist/homo- and trans-phobic takeover of our government, which is happening at all levels, from individual city councils all the way to Washington, D.C.
Here’s what you’re going to do to resist:
- Learn about your state legislature.
- Find the contact information for your state-level elected officials.
- Track bills related to an issue you care about.
- Call your state legislators about those bills.
- Go to a lobby day.
How are you going to do these things? Read on.
Where to Start
Every state has a house and a senate that function just like the national house and senate. Your first job is to learn where your state legislature is located, when they meet, and which party is in control. In Missouri, our state legislature is in Jefferson City. Our state house currently has 163 members and a Republican supermajority. Representatives have 2 year terms and can only serve for 8 years total. Our state senate has 34 members, also with a Republican supermajority. State senators’ terms are 4 years (½ of the seats are up for election every 2 years), and they can also only serve 8 years total. Our governor is Republican (and, even worse, is a mini-Trump). Legislative sessions runs from January through May.
Your second job is to find the names and contact information of your state (not your national) representatives. Google “[your state’s name] + senate” and “[your state’s name] + house” to find the websites of your state’s legislative branch (you’ll have to visit two different websites). In Missouri, the state Senate website is senate.mo.gov and the state house website is house.mo.gov. Both of them have links for you to look up your representatives by entering your home address. Program their office phone numbers, email addresses, and physical addresses into your phone or tape them somewhere visible, like on your computer or over your coffeemaker.
Your third job is to figure out 1 or 2 issues that you are most concerned about and to start tracking legislation related to that issue or those issues.
From January until roughly May, state legislatures work to pass bills that directly affect your life. Most of us haven’t been used to speaking up about these bills; we figure our job is done if we show up to cast a ballot on election day. But all of us get a say in legislation. You can (and must) make your elected officials hear your voice and push them to represent you, not just the lobbyists who give them enormous campaign contributions.
Your state senate and house websites have all the information you need about proposed bills, including who is sponsoring them, the text of the bill, the last action taken on the bill, and the committee members who will vote to send it to the whole house or senate (there is a search bar on both house and senate websites that will let you look up legislation). If you know the number of a proposed bill that you’re worried about (perhaps your local paper has covered it), you can look up bills directly by name. If you don’t know what specific bills are being proposed but you know you’re worried about gun safety in your state, to take one example, you can do a keyword search for “firearm” and you’ll find bills related to gun safety. You may need to play around with keywords to find all relevant legislation; if you’re concerned about anti-abortion legislation, for instance, you’ll probably want to search for “pregnancy,” “abortion,” and “fetus,” among other terms. In places like Missouri, you’ll also want to search for “pregnancy crisis center.”
When you find a specific bill you want to keep track of, you’ll want to pay attention to the sponsor, the last action taken, and the committee members. Do your homework. What can you find out about the committee members? What is their voting record like? Where are they likely to stand on the bill you’re tracking? When will the committee vote, and when will the full house or senate address the bill?
Your fourth job is to call your state senators and your state house representatives to tell them how you want them to vote. Your elected officials are supposed to work for you. Votes are blunt tools – they don’t tell electeds how their constituents want them to vote on every issue. You have to call them and you have to tell them. Every. Single. Week. Legislative sessions only last a few months, so you will get a break from the calls eventually. But not yet.
(And if you’re one of those people who finds phone calls uncomfortable or unpleasant [not someone with a serious anxiety disorder – that is a different situation], think about how much more uncomfortable it’s going to be to live in a state that denies women access to birth control, or trans kids access to bathrooms in their schools, or black Americans the right to drive or walk without being stopped and searched. Get over your feelings and pick up the goddamned phone. Right. Now.)
Your fifth job is to find an organization near you that holds lobby days in your state’s legislature and to go to at least one.
We all know about paid lobbyists – the people who make a ton of money buying political influence for large corporations and special interest groups. But most of us don’t know that all citizens can be lobbyists, and that “citizen lobbyist” is a meaningful and effective role to take on.
There are progressive organizations in your state that hold lobby days at your state legislature. This means that the group organizes transportation to the location of the state legislature, chooses specific bills it wants to target, gives you talking points and helps you figure out how to tell a personal story you may have related to a specific bill, and helps you to locate your representatives to tell them how you want them to vote on specific bills.
The organizations I know of here in Missouri that hold lobby days in Jefferson City are Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, Missouri Health Care for All, PROMO (LGBTQ+ rights), and Moms Demand Action (gun safety). There are many, many more. I’ve signed up for lobby days with Planned Parenthood, PROMO and the ACLU because that’s what I can manage and they’re directly addressing legislation that will have immediate and significant impact on individuals in this state related to issues I care deeply about. If you google “lobby day + [your state] + [issue you care about],” you’ll be able to find organizations holding lobby days, as well as information about how to sign up.
If you can’t make a lobby day, you can attend hearings about individual bills as a regular citizen. You have the right to show up, to tell your story, and to ask the committee you address to take your concerns into account when they vote. You don’t have to schedule anything; you can just show up the day of the hearing to testify (you’ll know about the hearing because you’ve been tracking bills, and because hearing dates, times, and locations are posted on state house and state senate websites). Check in with the ranking democratic member of the committee for help. If you can’t make a hearing, you can contact committee members who you know to be on your side (because you’ve done your homework) and give them questions you’d like them to ask during the bill’s hearing.
You don’t have to be an expert to testify at a lobby day or as an individual. In fact, your power comes from being a regular constituent. Personal stories are compelling and can and do affect the way legislators vote. For instance, at GOV101, we heard from a representative of Moms Demand Action who told us that prior to the formation of that group 4 years ago (in response to Sandy Hook), no proponents of gun safety laws showed up in Jefferson City to push back against the deregulation of fire arms. This is why, since 2007, gun laws in Missouri have gotten murderously permissive (up until 2007 you needed a permit from a sherriff’s office to purchase a gun; in 2017 you need no permit, no background check, no training, and we are facing 2 bills that will make it legal to carry a gun anywhere [bars, libraries, schools, you name it]). When Moms Demand Action started to hold lobby days in Jefferson City, state legislators were totally discombobulated by the sudden appearance of hundreds of gun safety proponents. Hearing from the opposition matters, especially if your state legislature is used to taking it for granted that there is no opposition. You are the opposition. You have to show up.
And of course it’s not all defense. Sometimes there are positive bills that you need to voice support for. This legislative session in Missouri, for instance, legislators will vote on the 4th Amendment Affirmation Act, which requires police departments to keep records of pedestrian stops (not currently a requirement) to gather data on racial profiling. The bill proposes that departments that show evidence of racial profiling will be provided with resources to develop anti-bias training (with penalties to follow if bias doesn’t decrease) and that non-biased departments will be rewarded. In this case, it matters that proponents call and show up to support this piece of positive legislation.
To recap, here is what you’re going to do:
- Learn about your state legislature.
- Find the contact information for your state-level elected officials.
- Track bills related to an issue you care about.
- Call your state legislators about those bills.
- Go to a lobby day.
There is no outside of politics. You may think you have the option of not being political. You may think you can close your eyes and escape. But you can’t. If you’re being silent, you are endorsing whoever is in power. Right now that means endorsing an openly white supremacist government. If you can sleep at night knowing you are on their side, so be it. If you can’t, you have to speak up. You have to get educated. You have to pick up the phone. You have to show up. You have to start right now.