Advocacy Manual & Lobbying Tips
Lobbying Tips (summarized from various sources including members of the League of Women Voters of Virginia and VA Legislators)
Find out who represents you: Click on this link and enter your address to find your local, state, and federal representatives.
Once you know who your representatives are, click here to find their websites & contact information
Refine talking points on your issue(s) and know which is your top one.
If you are going to be anywhere you might run into your representatives, have a 30-60 second “elevator speech” ready .
Whether calling, meeting, or writing your representatives:
Start by asking for something specific i.e. for them to sponsor, co-sponsor, support, oppose, or amend a particular bill or create one if none exists
Tell your story to explain why this issue matters to you (if you don’t have a story about yourself or someone you know, statistics or history why legislation is needed can be powerful)
End by reiterating a specific ask
Participate in group advocacy meetings with representatives and/or reach out on your own. If group, designate people to raise each issue and someone to take notes. Take notes on positions of legislators and share that valuable information with advocacy groups working on the same issues.
Phone calls are more effective than emails but if you can’t get through, emails are also useful. If you call, ask the representative (or staffer) whether they support x and why.
Share information with your friends about what’s happening in the General Assembly and what your legislators said about specific issues. Encourage them to get involved. Sometimes legislators can’t afford to do polls so if they hear from a lot of constituents on an issue, it might influence them.
Best to reach out to your own legislators (in any communication with them, mention that you are their constituent, if writing to them, include your zip code).
If your legislators are not on the committee considering a bill you care about, reach out to them anyway and ask them to speak to their colleagues. You can also reach out to the committee members (particularly the Chair or Co-Chair) since committee members are supposed to represent everyone.
If you are looking for someone to sponsor a bill, look at the track record of the person you are asking to file it. Have they been successful in the past? You can find out by looking at prior sessions on Virginia's Legislative Information System (LIS). If possible, best to have committee leaders file the bills because they usually have the most experience and long standing relationships with colleagues.
Public Hearings: Testimonials at hearings are very important to legislators. Written public comments may also be submitted. Hearing dates/times are published on LIS (find link above) as well as links to sign up to speak. If you sign up to speak, they will send you a link to join the meeting. If you aren’t speaking, you can watch via the link on LIS where you can also follow the status of the bill throughout the session.