Or - check out the app 5 Calls - it contains scripts for a variety of issues, and contact info for the appropriate government official(s). This will make the process much easier for anyone who - like me - is not a fan of making phone calls!

Put the 6 numbers in your phone (all under P – Politician.) An example is McCaskill MO, Politician McCaskill DC, Politician Blunt MO, etc., which makes it really easy to click down the list each day.

From experience since the election: If you hate being on the phone & feel awkward (which is a lot of people) don't worry about it — there are a bunch of scripts (Indivisible has some, there are lots of others floating around). After a few days of calling, it starts to feel a lot more natural.

F) They may get to know your voice/get sick of you — it doesn't matter. The people answering the phones generally turn over every 6 weeks anyway, so even if they're really sick of you, they'll be gone in 6 weeks.

E) Be clear on what you want — "I'm disappointed that the Senator..." or "I want to thank the Senator for their vote on... " or "I want the Senator to know that voting in _____ way is the wrong decision for our state because... " Don't leave any ambiguity

D) Pick 1-2 specific things per day. Don't rattle off everything you're concerned about — they're figuring out what 1-2 topics to mark you down for. Ideally something that will be taken up soon, but even if there's not a vote coming, call anyway. It's important that they just keep getting calls.

C) If you can make it personal, make it personal. "I voted for you in the last election and I'm worried/happy/whatever" or "I'm a teacher, and I am appalled by Betsy DeVos," or "as a single mother" or "as a white, middle class woman," or whatever.

Give them your zip code. They won't always ask for it, but make sure you give it to them, so they can mark it down. Extra points if you live in a zip code that traditionally votes for them, since they'll want to make sure they get/keep your vote.

Don't leave a message (unless the office doesn't pick up at all — then you can — but it's better to talk to the staffer who first answered than leave a message for the specific staffer in charge of your topic).

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.

So, when you call:

A) 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.

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 congressmen on the fence to vote with Republicans.

Calls are what the congresspeople pay attention to. Every day, the Senior Staff and the Senator get a report of the 3 most-called-about topics for that day at each office (in DC and local), and exactly how many people said what about each of those topics. They're also sorted by zip and area code.

2) YOU SHOULD MAKE 6 CALLS A DAY:
2 each (DC office and your local office) to your 2 Senators & your 1 Representative.

Any sort of online contact basically gets immediately ignored, and letters pretty much get thrown in the trash.

1) The best thing you can do to get your congressperson to pay attention is face-to-face time — town halls, local/DC offices, "mobile offices" (info on each congressperson's website). Ask a lot of questions. Push for answers. The more vocal and present you can be the better.