Ep. 7: Reaching Your Constituents and Translating Your Impact to the District

Written By POPVOX Foundation

In this episode, Aubrey Wilson and Taylor J. Swift welcome onto the podcast a bipartisan mix of current Members of Congress and former Chiefs of Staff who share their advice on how to make your work in Washington more accessible and relevant to the folks back home in your district, including creative email campaigns, real-time FaceTiming with constituents, music festivals, and more!

Congresswoman Kat Cammack [R, FL], a Republican representing Florida's third Congressional district, is currently serving her second term in the House of Representatives. With a background rooted in agriculture and small business, Cammack brings a unique perspective to her roles on the House Agriculture and Energy and Commerce Committees, where she focuses on issues affecting working-class families, farmers, and national security. Before her election to Congress, Cammack served as deputy chief of staff for her predecessor and holds a Master's Degree in National Defense and Strategic Studies from the US Naval War College.

Congressman Maxwell Alejandro Frost [D, FL] made history as the first Gen Z Member elected to Congress, representing Florida's 10th district in the House of Representatives. An Afro-Latino with a background in community activism and organizing, Frost brings a fresh perspective to Congress as one of the youngest members ever elected. During his freshman term, Representative Frost served on the Committee on Oversight and Accountability and the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology

Congressman Bryan Steil [R, WI], first elected in 2018, represents Wisconsin's first Congressional district in the House of Representatives. As Chairman of the Committee on House Administration and a member of the House Financial Services Committee, Steil focuses on issues such as election law, House operations, and expanding economic opportunities for Americans. Before entering politics, Steil spent a decade in Wisconsin's manufacturing industry and served on the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, experiences that inform his approach to reducing regulatory burdens and making education more affordable

Betsy Wright Hawkings, a veteran of Congressional operations, served as Chief of Staff to four Republican House Members over a 25-year period. Her career includes significant achievements in bipartisan legislation, such as the Congressional Accountability Act and the establishment of the 9-11 Commission. As the founding Managing Director of Democracy Fund's Principled Leadership and Effective Governance program, Betsy developed initiatives to reduce partisan gridlock and enhance Congressional effectiveness. Currently, she leads Article One Advisors, a consulting firm focused on improving Congressional function and fostering cross-ideological dialogue. A Williams College Mead Scholar, Betsy has been recognized for her public service by institutions including the Stennis Center for Public Service.

Bradford “Brad” Fitch served as the longtime President and CEO of the Congressional Management Foundation (CMF), a role to which he brought over three decades of diverse experience in Washington. With a career spanning journalism, Congressional staff positions, consulting, and academia, Brad developed a comprehensive understanding of Congressional operations. His tenure on Capitol Hill included roles as Press Secretary, Campaign Manager, Legislative Director, and Chief of Staff for four Members of Congress. At CMF, Brad led initiatives to enhance Congressional management practices, strengthen public trust in the Legislative branch, and improve constituent-advocacy engagement. Known for his energetic training sessions and deep commitment to the institution of Congress, Brad has conducted hundreds of trainings for tens of thousands of advocates, cementing his reputation as a respected nonpartisan voice in Washington.

Key Tips

Style and substance

How a Member communicates with their district and engages with their constituents is very much left up to them and can be personalized to match the style of the Member.

Let’s be frank

The bipartisan Communications Standards Commission (previously known as the Franking Commission) sets the guidelines about official communications for House offices. Review the manual to get to know the rules and tap into the Commission’s resources to be inspired by how other Members are creatively communicating with their communities back home.

Getting your footing

The first few months in Congress can be overwhelming. To start strong, consider picking two to three key policy priorities to focus on and have those guide your communication back to your district. Similarly, strong office branding and coordination between the DC and district offices goes a long way.

Customizable approaches

Explore your options when it comes to meeting your constituents where they are. Traditional in-person town halls, new telephone town halls, pop-up hours at a courthouse or coffee shop…there are many methods to reach a large cross-section of your district in meaningful ways. Be bold and experiment, especially if staff have creative ideas.

Notable Quotes

“It is so important to communicate with constituents and there’s so many ways to do it, whether it’s through mail, whether it is through social media, whether it is through telephone town halls, whether it is text messaging. There are so many ways you can communicate. Find the way – do the homework, do the research, figure out which way your constituents are consuming information best – and then really lean into it.”
— Rep. Kat Cammack [R, FL]
“We’ve always been very big on sending things in the mail, which would be signed photos from all our meetings and as a way to level up the game, our Creative Services Director said, ‘Why don’t I install a printing station in the vehicle and we’ll pack it in a Pelican case? And I will stage all the photos upfront. I’ll edit it on my laptop, print them in the car, package them in branded packaging, and you sign them? And at the end you hand it off.’ And I was like, ‘I like that! That’s going to be straight fire.’”
— Rep. Kat Cammack [R, FL]
“I do these things called ‘Coffee With Your Congressman,’ or we’ll do ‘Cafecito With Your Congressman,’ or like a ‘Tea With Your Congressman.’ And, we did it because, you know, at first we were doing these really big town halls with hundreds and hundreds of people, and it was great. It’s great for photos. But then I found, like, you know, you can’t really get to everybody at these things. And when you do answer a question you can’t like, let them follow up. You know what I mean? Because you have a limited amount of time. So these events we do, we actually really narrow it. Like not it’s not even per zip code. It’s per like block. Like we’ll pick a certain amount of blocks we want to target. And we’re just trying to get 20 to 20 to 30 people in like a coffee shop. And we have like an hour together just talking.”
— Rep. Maxwell Frost [D, FL]
“I think it’s up to the Member to figure out how to leverage the work they’re doing to make sure that it is focused in on the people that have given you the opportunity to be their voice in Washington… I have a robust email program that I send out once a week. Right. And we talked: we give people information, with lots of links and lots of information about the work we’re doing because we want to give people insight into what I’m doing on their behalf.”
— Rep. Bryan Steil [R, WI]
“Maybe a better use of dollars is to have a couple of field reps who are going in on, you know, fixed days…and you actively publicize that on Facebook and Instagram, and Twitter and wherever else…Sometimes people will just come to chat. And it’s amazing what you learn in addition to, you know, solving people’s problems. So, because oftentimes in a rural county and sometimes in an urban county, you pick a central location – it might be a county courthouse, it might be a coffee shop or a diner – I mean, know your know your district well enough to know where the places where people gather, and you’re going to get heavy foot traffic and they’ll welcome you and be glad you’re there.”
— Betsy Wright Hawkings, Manager of Congressional Outreach at the Levin Center and former Chief of Staff
“One of the new technologies that has evolved in the last 15 years is the use of telephone town halls. There’s no magic bullet to fixing democracy. There are magic BBs. And I can tell you the telephone town halls are one of them. They are honest. They are sincere. They are genuine…The average telephone town hall for a Member of the House of Representatives is between 5,000 and 7,000 people. The average number of people in an in-person town hall is 25. So they’re very scalable.”
— Bradford Fitch, former President and CEO of the Congressional Management Foundation

Highlighted and Additional Resources

Further Listening

For more insight on innovative ways to approach your time in Congress, we recommend you check out episode 10 on “How to Approach the House as a Modern Institution.” We’ll also flag episode 9 for you which features guests from this episode and asks them “What do you know now that you wish you had known then?” Listen as they share their reflections on knowledge they’ve gained since their own freshman terms.

About the Hosts

Aubrey Wilson is POPVOX Foundation’s Director of Government Innovation. Aubrey served as former Deputy Staff Director for the Committee on House Administration (CHA) in the 118th Congress. In this role, she coordinated efforts to make the House work more effectively, including overseeing the inaugural session of CHA’s bipartisan Subcommittee on Modernization. Prior, Aubrey served as Director of Oversight and Modernization for CHA during the 117th Congress. She is a former House legislative assistant and member of the R Street Institute Governance Policy and federal affairs team.

Taylor J. Swift is POPVOX Foundation’s Director of Government Capacity. Prior to joining POPVOX Foundation, Taylor was a senior policy advisor at Demand Progress, focusing on Congressional transparency, efficiency, capacity, and modernization. Taylor also worked at the House of Representatives Democratic Caucus where he focused on congressional modernization, budget, appropriations, education, labor, environmental, and tax policy. Taylor graduated with his master’s degree from The University of Akron, working as a teaching assistant for the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics.

About the Podcast

“Gavel In” is a nonpartisan explainer podcast series designed especially to mentor new Members Elect of the incoming 119th Congress, their staff, and families to help them successfully set up their new office, team, and Washington home base with ease and navigate the professional and personal challenges of life as a Representative. Gavel In guides Members-Elect about House Floor operations, office structure and hiring, budgeting, technology, security, ethics, and also the intricacies of parliamentary procedure, rules, and how a bill becomes a law.

Created by former Congressional staff from both sides of the aisle by the nonpartisan POPVOX Foundation, “Gavel In” features expert advice from former Members of Congress and their spouses and is a great complement to the House’s official New Member Orientation to ensure Members Elect get all the support they need to succeed as they embark on their new careers in Congress.

About POPVOX Foundation

With a mission to inform and empower people and make government work better for everyone, POPVOX Foundation is focused on ensuring that democratic institutions are equipped to address the “pacing problem” — the gap between emerging technologies and governance. Co-founded in 2021 and led by proud former Congressional staffers from both sides of the aisle, the team at POPVOX Foundation brings empathy, a deep respect for the Legislative branch, and diverse expertise to its efforts to modernize Congress and other governing institutions.

Transcript

Ep. 7: Reaching Your Constituents and Translating Your Impact to the District

Introduction

Aubrey Wilson: Welcome to Gavel In, a podcast series that demystifies how the House of Representatives works. We've created this show for incoming House freshmen of the 119th Congress, their spouses and their staff as an off-the-Hill resource to supplement your official New Member Orientation onboarding. So that you're extra set up for success with your new career in Congress.

Taylor J. Swift: We're your hosts, Aubrey Wilson and Taylor J. Swift. Two recovering House staffers from both sides of the aisle who share a love for the institution. This podcast is brought to you by our team at POPVOX Foundation, a nonpartisan nonprofit with a mission to inform and empower people and make government work better for everyone.

Aubrey Wilson: And in making Congress work better. We know that that starts with empowering Congresspeople and their staff. That's why we spent the last couple of months gathering the perspectives of prominent Members of Congress, think tank experts, staffers, and even Congressional veterans who all share their vast Capitol Hill knowledge with us and really pull back the curtain on what life is actually like in Congress.

Taylor J. Swift: We also want to be transparent. This is not official guidance.

Aubrey Wilson: For this episode on “Reaching your Constituents and Translating our Impact to the District,” we spoke with a bipartisan mix of current Members of Congress and longtime former Congressional staff, who will give you the scoop on how to make your work in Washington accessible and relevant to the folks back home in your district. Everything from creative email campaigns to real-time FaceTiming. We even talk about music festivals and town halls and more. Our guests include Republican Representatives Kat Cammack and Bryan Steil and Democratic Representative Maxwell Frost.

Taylor J. Swift: We also speak with two Capitol Hill veterans, Betsy Wright Hawkings, who served as Chief of Staff for four Republican House Members over a 24-year span and was a fellow to the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress. And Brad Fitch, former President and CEO of the Congressional Management Foundation, who also helped set up freshman office and served in many roles during his decade-plus working on Capitol Hill.

Aubrey Wilson: And with that, let’s gavel in!

Taylor J. Swift: We're both really, really excited for this one.

Aubrey Wilson: Oh yeah. Absolutely. I think that translating impacts to the district is something that should be easy and that Members and staff sometimes take for granted, but in reality, it's actually really, really challenging. I don't think that anyone would argue that Congress kind of has a PR problem these days. And so when you're trying to separate the work that your individual office is doing for your district and to show productivity in DC, and to show that you're trying to really represent your constituents and having that narrative have to combat with kind of this nationalized narrative that Congress is really, you know, struggling.

That is a challenge. You know, one of my favorite ways that I've ever actually heard this described is by Congressman Derek Kilmer, who was Chair of the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Modernization for House Administration Committee. You know, I say that it's really hard to talk about the good that Congress does when the institution itself has a lower approval rating than head lice and root canals.

And I think that just, like, really, you know, shows how challenging it is to break through those narratives and actually show constituents that the institution is doing a lot of good. And so I'm really glad that we're having an episode where we can bring in these guests from all these different perspectives to talk about some of the really creative ways that they've been able to touch their constituents in new ways.

Taylor J. Swift: Yeah, Aubrey, I really agree. And the great thing about this episode is we have a couple Members of Congress on to explain those impacts in their district. And they come from, you know, very, very different backgrounds. One of them was a former Congressional staffer before running for Congress, and one of them became one of the youngest Members of Congress ever.

And they talk about some really, really unique and interesting ways that they're showing up for the constituents in their district that not only matter to those constituents back home, but definitely make a difference in those office operations every single day. So let's go to those conversations now.

Interview with Rep. Kat Cammack [R, FL]

Aubrey Wilson: We're kicking things off with Representative Kat Cammack, who previously served as Deputy Chief of Staff for Republican Representative Ted Yoho and has continued representing that same district since 2021. I love how she incorporates her experience as a former staffer into her managerial style, and gives her staffers agency to experiment with creative new tactics to keep constituents informed and engaged.

Taylor J. Swift: And because of her previous service as the Chair of the Communications Standards Commission, Representative Cammack provides some great advice on how to stay within the rules that govern how you can communicate with constituents through official channels.

Aubrey Wilson: Representative Cammack, for Members who represent districts that have areas that are more rural and feel a total world away from DC, what are some of your best practices that you have really come across for how you can connect with constituents and translate the work that you're doing in DC back to that district?

Rep. Kat Cammack: So it's a couple of different things. I think we had an advantage and still do in being a millennial. We communicate much differently to our constituents and to constituents that may not be able to vote for me, but we still, as a federal Representative, vote for them every single day. And so, just having a different approach to how we communicate, messaging, and legislation, it's different than what I've seen before.

We do a very, a very concerted effort to have a genuine, authentic, real brand. And what that means is if at 3 AM I'm on the House floor voting and I have a booger in my nose and I look like hell, I'm going to hop on a Facebook Live or an Instagram Live, and I'm going to tell people what's up, and it's going to be as authentic and real as possible, even at the expense of perhaps my dignity.

And I think that that is something that is unusual in Washington because everything is very polished, very scripted, filtered, focus grouped, poll tested. And we kind of threw caution to the wind, in saying we're going to deliver what is happening in Washington to our constituents and to our followers, torpedoes be damned. And that cuts both ways, because with that comes a lot of criticism.

Lord knows we have taken our fair share of criticism. But I think that that has established a very firm base of trust where when we say something is going on, people know that it's accurate, they know that it's true, and they can count on that. And I think the most important thing about how we have really branded ourselves and packaged our team is that it's trustworthy.

And you may not always have to agree with it. And that's fine. You know, that's hell, this is America. You know? Well, I love a good debate and I want to have that dialog continually. But you can only have that when you trust, you know, that you have that foundation of trust. The other thing that we did, much differently was, the culture in DC has historically been staff are never seen. Right. It is the pictures that you see on social media or in all the branding. It is of the boss. And one of the things that I told my team right out the gate, because we kept a lot of our established team from when I was a staffer, and we all came together. And I remember our first meeting, I said, what are all the things that you have wanted to do as a staffer that you never could do?

And we all wrote the list down and I said, we're going to do it. And so many of the ideas that came out of that were brilliant and beautiful. And I remember thinking, I don't want my face to be this. There's so much work that goes into this. I want the staff to have a piece of the so-called glory.

And so we started really publishing the work that our team does with their faces on it. So when our, you know, Director of Military Veterans Affairs is presenting on a panel, it's not like a quiet, “Hey, this is so cool.” It's a, “I'm bragging on my team because he has gone and presented the best practices that are now being recognized nationally.”

And it's not only just showing the love for the team, but it's giving them credit for their ideas and the work that they do. And I think that has also really been a departure from what the culture on the Hill has always been, which is it's the boss, it's always the boss, and staff is meant to be, in the background, never seen, rarely heard, and we wanted to kind of flip that dynamic on the head.

Taylor J. Swift: That is so fantastic to hear. I mean, Aubrey and I are both former Congressional staffers, and just hearing that buy-in from leadership and someone like yourself, I just think it gets folks excited to want to work for you and work harder and think of new ways to solve complex problems. Can you kind of walk through some of the things that have been implemented that you took from some of your staff and they got credit for.

Rep. Kat Cammack: Oh my gosh. Well, it’s funny, so today, we had our creative team meeting, and it was a combination of our comms team, our casework team, and our field team. And, we said, all right, let's throw out some crazy ideas that you want to do. And, one of my, most favorite ideas that came out of today was, my Field Director, he attends a lot of events. I always say on our behalf when I'm up in DC. But he loves going to the fairs, and he has been wanting to set up a… it's not a booth, but it is a, I think we're calling it, “Kat’s Candids” or “Candid with Kat.” And it's been this evolution of he would be at fairs and people would come up and they'd be like, “Oh, hey, I saw your boss on Fox or whatever, and, I just thought what she said, quoting Die Hard was so funny,” and I like to use pop culture in my interviews. Like, if I have not incorporated a Taylor Swift or a Die Hard reference or, you know, something along those lines, I'm not doing it right. And so, he always got these little cute moments and he started recording them on his cell phone and texting them to me.

And then it evolved into, “Hey, can you FaceTime with me real quick?” And so I would step out and I would FaceTime with the constituents that he was with. And then we figured, how do we scale this up? And so after today's meeting, what we're going to start doing, rolling out, and then over the next couple weeks is he's setting up a ring light and an iPad where constituents will be able to record messages to me.

And then I can either record a message and send it back to them, or I can send them a letter or a text message, and it's just a new way to communicate with our constituents. And so I'm really excited about that. I think there's going to be some pretty cool moments that come from that, because of course, at that point then, you know, we can use that in different ways and, and take that material and use it.

And, and, you know, ways that people can communicate and reach other constituents and another thing, our Videographer, our Creative Services Director, he came up with an idea because we're very big on sending photos, signed photos. And I always, you know, try to focus on snail mail because there's such a beautiful element to getting something in the mail that is handwritten or something that's just not a bill, quite frankly.

And so we've always been very big on sending things in the mail, which would be signed photos from all our meetings and as a way to level up the game, our Creative Services Director said, “Why don't I install a printing station in the vehicle and we'll pack it in a Pelican case? And I will stage all the photos upfront. I'll edit it on my laptop, print them in the car, package them in branded packaging, and you sign them. And at the end you hand it off.” And I was like, I like that. That's going to be straight fire. And he's like, “Oh yeah, I'm so excited.” So it's like little things like that where people are coming up with new ideas.

I mean, and it's everything from the casework team on how to reach new folks to our economic team, our economic development team. You know, when we're poaching companies from other states, yes. It happens. We try to poach companies from other states to set up shop in ours. When we're working on things like that, something that's always been kind of known is that, you know, you try to recruit those people down in the district.

We started sending our Economic Development Director to those other states and to those companies to tour and do site visits of that company. And that's been really exciting, too, so all kinds of things that we've got our hands in.

Taylor J. Swift: As someone who is named Taylor Swift, I resoundingly endorse all of these really, really creative and innovative ideas. That is so cool. I love it. So, kind of going off of what you just explained of how you're reaching constituents, you actually also serve on the House’s Communications Standards Commission. And so for our new Member listeners and our new staffers, you know, could you kind of give us a brief rundown of what that Commission does and how there has been a lot of innovation in the House over the past couple of years to to modernize its rules so that it can fit its communication styles to social media and email and everything you kind of just described.

Rep. Kat Cammack: And so the Communications Standards, it is a body of three three Republicans, three Democrats, and then the Chair. And, I served as the Franking Commission Chair last Congress. And it really is to just kind of oversee and kind of mediate through some of these issues that you come across. Now, there is absolutely a line to be drawn when it comes to political or campaign type of messaging that goes out.

But it gets more and more difficult as we move forward into an era of social media. And what is the office saying? What is the Member saying? How do you bifurcate the Member’s voice to an official and an unofficial? And then there's so many redundancy elements of, okay, well, this is my statement. And then I have to say the same statement, but maybe tweak a few sentences on the other side.

It gets to be a little bit much. And there's a great source of friction that happens when you're trying to bifurcate the Member’s voice and figure out what goes on official and what goes on unofficial. So, my recommendation would absolutely be first and foremost, read the manuals, know the rules. That will alleviate a lot of problems. And then I would have your Member read the rules, because then you're not stuck having to explain it over and over and over again.

The other thing is, as a first-time Member, do not shy away from building a, and I hate this word, but I'm going to use it. It's such a DC word, a robust, franking budget. I hate that word. It's such a stupid DC term. Yeah, robust. A robust, I'll say a healthy franking budget. You know, it is so important to communicate with constituents and there's so many ways to do it, whether it's through mail, whether it is through social media, whether it is through telephone town halls, whether it is text messaging.

There are so many ways you can communicate, find the way, do the homework, do the research, figure out which way your constituents are consuming information best, and then really lean into it. And take a page out of the campaign playbook. We know that it takes thirteen touches on a voter for them to actually absorb the message and your name ID, and be convinced to vote for you and persuade you to go out and check your name in the ballot box.

Use that same mentality in the Congressional office of, find the people you want to communicate with, and communicate often. That is something that I think is really, really important and use the templates. The templates are beautiful. They are so easy when you just run through a bunch of templates and you get them pre-approved through franking, then you can have the flexibility to really do what you got to do in a timely manner. So those are my recommendations.

Interview with Rep. Maxwell Frost [D, FL]

Aubrey Wilson: After hearing about those creative ways of engaging with constituents from a millennial Member of Congress, next we want to share the advice that we heard from Representative Frost.

Taylor J. Swift: Representative Frost is actually one of the youngest Members of Congress ever. He's hailing from Orlando, Florida. He's the first Gen Z Member of Congress, and during our conversation, he was able to discuss how to bridge the divide between district and DC based staff, and how having a strong internal communication system can only strengthen your team's ability to engage with constituents.

Because of your background and your experience, you've brought some truly innovative ways to interact with your constituents. I know that you've had some pretty unique events in your district, including music festivals, and you've also hosted DC area bands in your Congressional office. So cool. Can you talk a little bit about how you came up with some of these ideas and other new types of engagement to reach your constituents?

Rep. Maxwell Frost: Yeah, I appreciate the question because I'm a really big well, you know, if you don't know, I'm a musician. My dad's a musician. I went to art school. I wanted to be a drummer my whole life. And then something wrong happened and I decided to go into politics, no. But, so I come from that world, and I come from the world of live events, live entertainment, live music.

I really believe in the power of culture, especially in areas of government, right? One of the mottos I'm like, constantly repeating is like, we're looking for ways to bridge the gap between cool and consciousness. And like as a Member of Congress, I have an opportunity to do that in a very, unique way, whether it's in my district, with my constituents or up here in DC with the people I work with.

And I'm always looking for new ways to bring, to do new things, but new ways that are authentic. Right? You know, I never want to force something that I'm not excited about. You know, a lot of times my team and even myself will all brainstorm different ideas, and it's like, it would be cool, but maybe not now, or it would be cool, but maybe not me.

And like being honest about those things, I think, you know, really helpful. So one of our you brought one up. You know, we have “MadSoul Music and Arts Festival,” which is a yearly festival we're going to do, and it's actually something I've been doing for a few years, with just sort of my friends. And we decided to kind of hand it over to my campaign to do, and the whole purpose of it is it's a music festival where people, instead of vendors, you talk with local organizations and you sign petitions, you register to vote.

And then in between each set, you know, we have speaker sets where we have, speakers, local advocates, but also national folks speak as well to kind of create this environment where people feel, you know, people can have that call to action to get involved in what they believe in and connect with me and connect with my office and the work that I do.

You mentioned another one that I'll talk about, which, you know, I introduced a bill called the Create Art Act. My vision in my head always was like, we're going to have a band at the House triangle, which, you know, the House triangle is in front of the Capitol, right in front of the House side. And it is like the it is where you do all your bill introductions.

It's where everyone does all of the press conferences where you want that Capitol dome in the background. So my vision was always doing a concert there to introduce this bill that would help independent artists the Create Art Act. And we were told, “Yeah, you can't do that at the House triangle.” So I was a little like, you know, a little ticked off.

I was like, what? What are we going to do? Like, I don't want to do it anywhere else. I want to do it in a hall of government. You know, that was really I want music in the hall of government for this. So we decided to do like a, you know, mini “Tiny Desk” show in my Longworth Office.

And it ended up being a really beautiful thing. But it was great here, obviously, for everyone that was there and it was unique. But then all that footage that I got shown of it at home was so impactful and we had so many artists, so many people DM’ing me saying, “Hey, I'm a musician. I don't really care that much about government, but I saw this thing on the news when you had a band there, that's awesome.”

In fact, one of my favorite stories is, I had a I do these things called ‘Coffee With Your Congressman,’ or we'll do ‘Cafecito With Your Congressman,’ or like a ‘Tea With Your Congressman.’ And, we did it because, you know, at first we were doing these really big town halls with hundreds and hundreds of people, and it was great.

It's great for photos. But then I found, like, you know, you can't really get to everybody at these things. And when you do answer a question you can't like, let them follow up. You know what I mean? Because you have a limited amount of time. So these events we do, we actually really narrow it. Like not it's not even per zip code.

It's per like block. Like we'll pick a certain amount of blocks we want to target. And we're just trying to get 20 to 20 to 30 people in like a coffee shop. And we have like an hour together just talking. So I was doing one a few months ago. And there's we're doing it in like a community that has it's an older population.

So I had two younger people walk in. I was like, okay, cool. You know, this is like an older area, but that's cool. And I started talking to them after and they were like, “We saw you introduced that bill in the arts, and we're part of the like, punk rock band here locally. Anything we can do to help you let us know. We're like fully in — I don't…I'm not a political person, but I don't know. I just want to come and so that's what it's all about.”

You know, sometimes it's less about inviting people to your table, but you go into theirs. And you can do that in different ways, creatively.

Interview with Rep. Bryan Steil [R, WI]

Taylor J. Swift: Man, I really wish I could have went to that music festival. That sounded like so much fun.

Now we're going to check in on our conversation with Representative Bryan Steil of Wisconsin, who is the Chairman of the Committee on House Administration, and applies years of business acumen in the manufacturing industry to achieve results in Congress.

You know, sometimes Congress really feels inside baseball, but Representative Steil shares how to make some of the work more accessible for folks back home. At the end of the day, it's all about keeping your constituents informed and engaged.

Aubrey Wilson: So I know that the House Administration Committee has such a unique jurisdiction because it's really inward focused on the Hill and the elections part of the jurisdiction is obviously more of a hot topic that really relates to back home. But a lot of House Admin’s jurisdiction is pretty insider baseball, where it's very DC focused with kind of, the freshmen who come in who get the assignment to committees like Rules or House Admin or even a probe sometimes that are a little bit more insider baseball-y.

Do you have any tips from Members of how to translate the impacts of those committee assignments back home?

Rep. Bryan Steil: I think it really can be outward facing. And I think it's up to the Member to figure out how to leverage the work they're doing to make sure that it is focused in on the people that have given you the opportunity to be their voice in Washington. And so, sure, there are people who spend way too much time in DC, and focus in on the DC aspect of it.

I don't think that's a recipe for success. And so I think it's a lot about saying, “Okay, how is the work that I'm doing here bettering people, who have given me this opportunity, to be a voice in Washington for them?” And so, you know, we could get in the weeds on, you know, maybe, you know, how Members are or not allowed to communicate back with their constituents.

But that's all about how to communicate back home. Right? So, you know, it's kind of in the weeds, right? I have a robust email program that I send out once a week. Right. And we talked, we give people information, with lots of links and lots of information about the work we're doing because we want to give people insight into what I'm doing on their behalf.

But the real question, right, should be how do I absorb all this information to further the policy goals, that people are giving me an opportunity to to represent them on, and so you have to really maintain a mentality of focus not on, kind of the B.S. that occurs, in DC, but really to focus in, on how do I leverage this, to be able to move things forward.

And hopefully I've had some level of success with that. Not only, you know, informing constituents at home about the work that I'm doing, but also some of that's that incremental change that we've been successful getting across the line, through the Committee on House Administration and helping other Members do the same. There's a lot that's broken here, in DC, kind of that entrenched partisanship.

And if we break through that, we benefit the American people.

Discussion

Taylor J. Swift: Wow. So we just ran the gauntlet with three very different Members of Congress who all shared amazing ideas about how to reach their constituents. I loved that Rep. Cammack kind of talked about her specific creative teams. So the creative team, the economic development team and the comms team and how it's very staff driven.

And so, you know, they have all these really cool ideas that they run with on the ground level, including having like printers in their car and FaceTiming constituents. It's like just really, really cool things that I think leave a lasting impression to the folks that she meets in real time. And then you have, Rep. Maxwell Frost, who just loves doing the face-to-face stuff by itself, whether it's sitting in cafes for coffees, so that he can reach diverse folks in his community or in a neighborhood, you know, going neighborhood by neighborhood at a time.

Just that one-on-one face-time to show that he's really there to talk through those real world issues I think matter to a lot of folks. And then, of course, Chair Bryan Steil, you know, using strategic email campaigns that emphasize the proper links and proper information so that the folks in his district are getting quality, reliable information when they need it most.

That stuff matters to tens of thousands of people, especially, when it really, really matters. It really comes down to it.

Aubrey Wilson: Yeah, I completely agree, Taylor. And I think that, like all three of those examples and actually all the examples that they gave and they really showcase like best practices, you know, there's so many different communities that make up every single district and there's so many different, you know, cross-sections of of, you know, age and diversity and background and everything else.

And, you know, all of these numbers showcase how both like kind of more traditional tools like email, but then also, you know, and face to face, like going to a, you know, going to a cafe all the way to, you know, using modern technology where, you know, as you were saying, you know, Congresswoman Kat Cammack, you know, her Chief can be at a fair somewhere FaceTiming her in DC and having her actually talk to a constituent.

And like, that's such an incredible opportunity for, you know, modern people in Congress to really utilize technology to, to reach their constituents in new ways. And so to hear all those different stories and just to emphasize to new Members how much flexibility you have to be innovative, I think, it's just like it's inspiring. And I'm really excited to see what this upcoming freshman class comes up with, because I think we're just seeing more and more innovative ideas with every single class, and I just can't wait to see what the 119th, you know, kind of shows is possible.

Before we actually move on to our next guest, too. I did also want to kind of reemphasize the Communication Standards Commission. So Rep. Cammack brought this up. She actually was Chair of the Commission last Congress. But for those who haven't heard of it before, it's another resource that you really need to get familiar with as a new Member, and that you need to make sure that your communications team is really familiar with.

It's a bipartisan, complete 50-50 split of Republicans and Democrats. It's a Commission that is kind of off the side of the Committee on House Administration. And so all of their resources are off of the Committee on House Administration website. But the Commission is essentially formed to ensure that MRA funds that go to franking, which is your entire mail and communications budget, that it's used, in a nonpartisan way for mass mailers.

And so the way that mass mailers is defined, or mass communication is defined as anything that touches over 500 constituents. And the idea here is that if you're sending a message to over 500 people in your district that that is a diverse, you know, population that you're emailing to and that the the information you're communicating to those people needs to be official resources and official communication needs to be something that, translates to them the impacts of what you're doing or helps them, you know, be able to access the resources that your office as a Member of Congress is providing them.

And it's not political messaging or campaigning. And so the Commission goes through and they have a staff that actually bipartisanly go and review messages that are mass communications to ensure that there's not an overly politicized message in those mass mailers. And so the there's a Communication Standards handbook that you should really, you know, get familiar with.

But then also in the last couple of years, the Communication Standards Commission has really modernized, and they really view their role as a partnership with Members now. And so they've actually put out a ton of like, proactive resources to help Members better translate their impacts to the district. And so they actually have, like one resource in particular that's a huge collection of sample formats and sample past mailers that other Members of Congress have done that showcase the really innovative ways that this can be, that the rules can be utilized.

And so, Cammack mentioned this, but I highly recommend going on looking at those templates. They're accessible on like a bipartisan basis. And they can give you an idea and give your comms team an idea of what's been approved in the past to really expedites that approval process through the Communication Standards Commission.

So you can start, you know, really communicating with your district in super modern and effective ways right off the bat.

Taylor J. Swift: So hey, Aubrey, before we go on to our next guest, you talked a lot about what happens to the mail that's over 500 that goes to constituents. Can you briefly talk to our listeners, about what happens to the mail that goes to under 500?

Aubrey Wilson: Oh, my gosh, Taylor. Yeah, absolutely. So, good catch. There's actually this, this thing on the Hill called a 499, which as a New Member of Congress, you're going to get very familiar with. And it's called the 499, because it's a letter written by your Comms Director or your Legislative Correspondent who, you know, as you just mentioned, Taylor, that goes to 499 constituents or below.

And so it's kind of that loophole in the system where there's as large of an audience for a piece of mail that you can send out that doesn't have to go through approval of the Communications Standards Commission. And so a lot of teams, when they're setting up their comms plans and their outreach plans for their district, they'll usually have an agenda set with their Legislative Correspondent and some goals.

And so one of the goals, for example, when I was a Legislative Correspondent, was we try to send out at least two 499’s a week. And so we would pick two, you know, priorities of the Congressman or two, pieces of information that really emphasized the impact that he was having in DC to translate that back to the district.

And we would try to put those into letters that could proactively be sent out to constituents, to talk to them about that work being done. And so we could only send those to 499 individuals, and we'd obviously try to hit a different 499 with each letter that we sent. But the key with 499s is that every single one has to be unique.

And so you can't just have the same body paragraph and switch around the intro paragraph. You really have to make every single one unique to make sure that it doesn't break that rule or violate that guidance of, reaching out to 500 constituents or more to go through the Communications Standards Commission. So 499 is another tool that's in Members' pockets, especially for, you know, translating, you know, the effects that you're having in DC to your district around, like, very specific policies if you have a very specific audience.

So, for example, if you are really active on education, you want to send this to just a teachers or people who are on PTO, something like that could be a good use of a 499. But everything else, you know, should really kind of be considered to do kind of those more mass mailers, that would have to go through the Standards Commission's approval.

Taylor J. Swift: That's so helpful, absolutely instrumental information from the great Aubrey Wilson on how to use these tools. So thank you. We're going to transition to our next guest. She's going to really go into some of the more traditional ways to reach constituents. I know Aubrey and I have been talking to some Members about their innovative tactics and strategies to reach a lot of their constituents in their district.

But to quote, you know, Taylor Swift sometimes these traditional ways never go out of style. Oh, man, that was such a bad joke. I'm sorry, Aubrey.

Aubrey Wilson: It was so good. It was so good.

Taylor J. Swift: Let's, let's head to our conversation now.

Interview with Betsy Wright Hawkings

Taylor J. Swift: Our next guest, Betsy Wright Hawkings, served as Chief of Staff for four Republican House Members over a 24-year span. She's also regarded for her work in the modernization space, where she was a fellow for the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress. She also was the Managing Director at Democracy Fund, a philanthropy that worked to reduce gridlock in government.

Aubrey Wilson: During our conversation with her, Betsy shares some really wise insights on how town hall meetings and mobile office hours can help expand your reach to your constituents and keep them informed of what you're working on, and also how to make sure that they know about the events you're hosting so that you can maximize your impact.

So Betsy, DC is known to be a bubble, and translating the impacts of what's happening in DC back home is a challenge that all Members really seem to face. When you were Chief and since then, in your work, which has really been focused on promoting effective government systems, what are some approaches that come to mind of ways that Members can best engage with their constituents about the productive things that are happening in DC?

Betsy Wright Hawkings: So I actually still think that there's no substitute for town hall meetings. And I realize that's a little bit, that's a little bit of a counterculture thing to say, because I know that it's, I know that it's a challenge. But I think that it's important for Members to be seen. I mean, when you think about it, you know, Members campaign, they campaign in person.

And still and. I think there are ways to manage town halls that productively create conversations among constituents. And I actually think, if you think about if you think about the Member not being at the center of the town hall, and you actually think about the constituent being at the center of the town hall, which is sort of the purpose, that you can you could actually get you could actually take some of the jeopardy for the Member out of the town hall.

Congressman Bilirakis actually does this really well. And interestingly, Congressman Latta, does it really well also, and both of their fathers were in Congress, and they are both, at least as of a year or so ago, clung to the idea of doing town halls. I mean, not during the pandemic, but, because I think because they grew up seeing their dads.

I mean, that's my assumption. I've never talked to them about it. Oh, actually, I did hear Bilirakis say it once. They grew up seeing their dads do it, and that's the way the job is done. And so that's the way, you know, one of the things they're going to do to keep doing the job. And Bilirakis does it really well.

He actually goes down on the floor, which if you know him, he's not really a very tall guy. But he, but but he did an amazing job going back and forth between constituents with the microphone and facilitating this conversation. And, and, and sort of saying to one guy, okay, now you've had your turn. Now we're going to have this other person have their turn.

And it occasionally he'll say, “Well, here's what I think.” But he's actually facilitating a conversation among constituents who might not agree with each other. And and when it's done well, people are learning from each other. And sometimes they find that they agree and sometimes they don't. But, instead of a Member standing up on a stage behind a microphone with a tie, you know, he's down there with khakis and his sleeves rolled up, and he's the one that's running back and forth between the Members with a microphone, with a between the constituents, with a microphone facilitating the conversation.

It means people aren't. Most of the time. I mean, I'm sure they do sometimes, but I've seen him actually on CNN doing this. And, it's kind of an interesting kind of an interesting model. So that's so that's one thing my longtime boss, Mr. Shays, used to used to do these town hall meetings and and, you know, it it I mean, people appreciate that you come to their neighborhood, you know, he used to always say, you know, people don't care when you say, you know, that you've gone to every house.

They care that you've come to their house, right? So people don't care if you say, you know what I've done. You know, however many town hall meetings they care. Have you come to my town, and have they seen you? And have they had an opportunity to come and see you and and I think and so that's one.

Another one is mobile office hours, right? I mean, you set up one of the things you do when you're a new Member of Congress is you set up your district office and you need to have a district office. But a lot of times, people can't get to your district office. And, you know, one of the things that zoom has done is, you know, it's facilitated…the connection to the district office.

But sometimes people just have to, you know, be able to get again, see the Member get there in person, or sometimes just see the staff or they want to see the staff. And for a district that is not compact, sometimes the staff have to go to them. You can't open a district office in every town in your district.

And in point of fact, you really shouldn't. That's not a good use of resources. You know, fixed costs like a, like, bricks and mortar, are not always the best use of those limited office, those limited MRA dollars. Right. It's sometimes a better use of MRA dollars to say, okay, we'll have one district office and we'll have Field Reps who, I mean, maybe you have a van and you have a mobile office, but that can have liability and have other issues.

Maybe a better use of of dollars is to, is to have a couple of Field Reps who are going in on, you know, fixed days, like it's every, you know, first and third Monday you're in one county courthouse and every second and third Tuesday you're in another county courthouse, and you actively publicize that on Facebook and Instagram, you know, and Twitter and wherever else.

And also, you know, in print on the wall of the county courthouse. So everybody knows, you know, Congressman Smith's field rep is going to be there, you know, from 12 to 4 on every first and third Monday. And if you've got a problem, you can come and see them. And you better believe that that, you know, guy or gal is going to be there and you develop a relationship with folks.

And it's amazing. Sometimes people will just come to chat. And it's amazing what you learn in addition to, you know, solving people's problems. So, because oftentimes in a rural county and sometimes in an urban county, you know, the you pick a central location, it might be a county courthouse, it might be, it might be a coffee shop or a diner, you know, I mean, know your know your district well enough to know where the places where people gather, and you're going to get heavy foot traffic and, and, they're they'll welcome you and be glad you're there.

But, you know, at pick a place, but oftentimes just being there, people just knowing that you're there is what you accomplish. And that's what, you know, will build trust. And then when there is a problem, either there's a, there's a concern about legislation or something else that's happening that will affect the district. You know, you'll hear about it before it's, you know, this big boulder that's rolling down the hill and is getting ready to flatten you politically.

Because you will have been there regularly and people will, you know, somebody will take your side and say, "Hey, I've heard X” or, you know, “Hey, how's the boss voting on this?” And then, you know, it's important that the Member themselves go and show up on a regular basis in the city. So it's not just the staff, but the staff is developing that rhythm.

And then the Member shows up regularly enough when they're home, not voting. So those are two things that I would say.

Aubrey Wilson: Do you have any recommendations of how to really get word out in the district about the events that the Congress person will be at, or the different types of kind of community interactions that district offices try to host? Because that seems to be a challenge that a lot of Members face is just having attendance at these in-person events, during these recess weeks when they are home in their district.

Betsy Wright Hawkings: Yeah. So, I mean, I think digital. Sure. I mean, I think that's great. And, you know, if people are if your constituents are paying attention to digital ads and, and online and that's great. There is no substitute for having constituents who are your advocates who are making sure that, that, that they are telling their friends and that they are encouraging their friends to come and attend.

One of the things that that we, one and one of the mechanisms that we used, in a couple of my boss' offices were, I mean, for example, we knew in a couple of the districts that we had very strong veterans populations, and that there was going there were going to be, a wide range of veterans issues and that there were veterans in every county, who were sort of leaders on those issues.

Right. And so just going into well, there and so there was a veterans, there were veterans already who had worked on behalf of my boss, during the campaign. And so we just said going into, you know, before he was even sworn in, you know, “We're going to establish a veterans coalition. We'd like you to help us. You know, we'd like you to be sort of on the steering committee.” You know, we've had a steering committee of people from every county. It met once a quarter. And, you know, we asked everybody who was on the steering committee to, you know, make sure to get the word out, not just about those meetings.

Obviously, we would invite them, but then we would ask the steering committee to make sure that there was attendance. We involved them in the nominations of the Academy folks. I mean, obviously that's the responsibility of the Academy. But then when the nominations were announced, we would invite them to come and meet the nominees.

You know, I mean, we made sure that they felt some ownership, you know, that it wasn't just a cynic. You're right that they were, that they had some responsibility to advise with regard to legislation, that there was an active conversation and discussion that went on. And so when, when then we asked them to help get their folks to attend events.

You know, they did that.

Aubrey Wilson: Before we wrap up our section on translating impacts the district, is there anything else that comes to mind that you'd think would be helpful for freshmen Chiefs, District Directors, and Members to keep in mind?

Betsy Wright Hawkings: I would say go slow on opening district offices. You know, even if you've made a commitment, even if the boss has made a commitment to open, you know, however many district offices take it slow, you can do much more with fewer district offices and more mobile hours than, you know, and having those extra dollars that you would spend on a sunk cost of a district office to have, you know, pay an extra field rep and just, you know, have those regular office hours in the town where you said you'd have a district office, just have more.

It's have somebody with eyes and ears on the ground to be available to your constituents there and someplace else. It's it's just it's a much more.

And don't open it because it's much harder to close it once you open it than to know than to never open it at all. And just, you know, when the, when the if you feel like you've made a commitment, you just do a big press availability when the, you know, the first off, the first mobile office hours that that field rep is doing, you know, the Member go and unveil it and you know, Tyler's going to be here every every first Monday and Wednesday.

You know, he's here for you. And you know, I'm here today to announce this because this…is a commitment I made. And this is so I mean, you know, there's ways to do it. There's ways to meet your commitments that don't involve, you know, fixed costs, sunk costs and give you the flexibility. So it's just I had to close two district offices once and it's just always bad press and it's totally avoidable.

Aubrey Wilson: One, it's incredible too because I know we have an episode of Gavel In focused on the Members’ Representational Allowance, but the way that the budgets are structured, it really does leave Members a lot of autonomy to meet the district where they're at with needs like that. And, I know earlier on, you mentioned mobile offices. You know, you mentioned office hours and other kind of like, you know, Government Service Administration, GSA buildings.

So I think all those are incredible solutions versus, like you said, going straight to opening up that brick and mortar district office.

Interview with Bradford Fitch

Aubrey Wilson: I love that Betsy highlighted that Congress and connecting with their constituents is still a people to people based business. And as a longtime Chief, her emphasis on the role that a town hall can still play, I think is really important, but that that town hall experience doesn't have to be this traditional experience where the Member’s up on stage and fielding questions and like a hot seat, but rather the Member can actually be on the ground talking to constituents and fostering a conversation with their community.

Taylor J. Swift: I think you hit the nail on the head, Aubrey. I think it's one of the most impactful things Members of Congress can do in their district. So we were also able to interview Brad Fitch on his first official day of retirement after working at the Congressional Management Foundation for over 20 years, where he served as President and CEO.

Luckily for us and to you, our listeners, Brad is an encyclopedia of knowledge. After advising Congressional offices on management and staffing best practices, after his decade-plus tenure on Capitol Hill, he also helped set up a freshman offices and served as a variety of communication and advisory roles. You'll definitely want to check out his book and CMF's book Setting Course, a Congressional Management Guide, as well as other books Brad has helped author, including The Media's Role in Shaping Congress.

So, Brad, a lot of your work at the Congressional Management Foundation focuses on improving the relationship between Congress and citizens. And so we'd love to hear from you about what you believe the current state of civic engagement is around the United States, and where you see the biggest gaps.

Bradford Fitch: Well, one thing that I've seen in terms of civic and citizen engagement is that most Americans don't see most of what goes on because most of what goes on is facilitated by trade associations and nonprofits. You may call those groups special interest. I call them farmers, teachers, food bank program officers. And they're all advocating their cause, petitioning their government for a redress of grievances as their First Amendment right grants them.

And that part is going pretty well. The groups are usually pretty good at identifying issues that are important to them. They're very good about getting their Members to communicate. Some are better than others, no question. But. And it works. I'll just give you an example. From my experience, I've had the good fortune over eleven years of working with the Alzheimer's Association.

Alzheimer's is one of the most difficult diseases, along with dementia, that we face in our nation. Two out of five Americans are either going to have dementia or Alzheimer's or care for someone who does. That's a really big honkin’ number. And in the last ten years, in part because of their effective grassroots network, the amount of money that America spends on Alzheimer's research has gone up 700%.

And nobody knows that story unless you subscribe to the Alzheimer's Association newsletter. You know, we increased Pell Grant funding three years ago. Four years ago. So I think there are examples where citizen engagement does work, where Members are listening to their constituents and in the narrow ways. And I think a lot of the portrayal of Congress being deaf to their constituents is baloney.

They definitely do have a moral and political incentive to listen to their constituents. And our research shows that they really try hard to do that. I think where we've seen some gaps in civic engagement is, frankly, in Gen Z, and some younger millennials are not feeling that the government is working for them and being responsive to them.

And, I was at an event where a statistic came out and it was something along the lines of, do you agree that democracy is a good form of government? And something like 28% of women under 30 disagreed with that. And I was a big group or like 200 people here. And I raised a question, can some woman under 30 please explain to me what's going on there?

And this woman got up and says, “Yeah, what has government done for me lately?” You know, and I kind of got it. I was like a lightbulb moment. Oh white guy. Yeah. Let's start, you know, kind of wake up that for many segments of our society, government has not been responsive to their needs. They're not part of the Alzheimer's Association or Feeding America or one of the trade association groups that is actually seeing progress in their issues.

So I do think I am worried that there needs to be more work in the general area of citizenship, for the generations that are coming into, frankly, power in our society as voters and as participants. What's interesting about the research on millennials and Gen Z is they volunteer in higher numbers than, say, Gen X and baby boomers, which I think, again, is encouraging.

It's it's really wonderful. I remember I know when I interviewed interns and like, what did you do during spring break? Oh, I went down to Belize and helped build elementary schools. I was like, shit, I went to Fort Lauderdale and got drunk. I mean, this is a lot, you know? I mean, this is a different generation of thinking and I think that's to be celebrated.

But I think we have more work to do to help the next generation understand that their role as citizens goes beyond volunteering, and that it does mean engaging with your elected officials.

Taylor J. Swift: So let's talk about that engagement a little bit. With the rise in social media technology, obviously for generations, town halls, phone calls, those are traditional ways that constituents have been able to reach, and contact their Representatives. But what are some ways that Members of Congress in the House can kind of engage their constituents today in the 21st century.

Bradford Fitch: One of the new technologies that has evolved in the last fifteen years is the use of telephone town halls. There's no magic bullet to fixing democracy. There are magic BBs. And I can tell you the telephone town halls are one of them. They are honest. They are sincere. They are genuine. If I have a critique, they can be a little boring.

But then again, most Members of Congress can be a little boring. But they are effective ways. The average telephone town hall for a Member of the House of Representatives is between 5 and 7000 people. The average number of people in an in-person town hall is 25. So they're very scalable. Research the Congressional Management Foundation has done with Ohio State University shows that participants in telephone town halls had greater trust in government, are more likely to vote, have greater trust in the Member of Congress to do the right thing.

So there's a lot of really good things to say about this. And one of the unexpected developments of the pandemic since Members couldn't go in-person is the number of telephone town halls dramatically increased the number of Americans that participated in 2021, in a Congressional telephone town hall — 3 million people. So you've got a chance here with this technology to improve trust, to increase voting participation, and to have Members be genuinely accountable.

Because there's this myth sometimes out there that they censor these calls. They don't censor people because of what they're asking about. These censor people that are crazy swearing and giving death threats. They want to hear questions. They're in a safe environment. They get a chance to interact with their lawmakers, and citizens can ask questions. I've been in three telephone town halls for my Member of Congress in Northern Virginia, and I've gotten in questions in two of them.

And, you know, because I hit the button really quickly and wanted to ask a question. So I think there are some areas where Members of Congress have used social media effectively to interact, with their constituents.

Again, during the pandemic, Facebook was very popular cause it was free. And Members of Congress could give out some great public service messages through that medium. I've been impressed with some of the Instagram use that Members have done to shine a light on things that they're doing they otherwise wouldn't use or tell. And so I always encourage constituents to sign up for the social media feeds for their for their elected officials at every level of government, not just Congress, but the state and local level as well.

So I think there are some potential bright spots in the civic engagement area. And I hope that we can continue to explore those.

Taylor J. Swift: Are there resources or places that you recommend that new staff or new Members of Congress go to to try to set up strong, telephone town halls operations or strong social media engagement operations?

Bradford Fitch: Well, let me answer your question this way. When it comes to telephone town halls, the book on the topic is called Politics with the People by Michael Neblow. It's not an academic tome. It's very short book. And they even included a memo at the end of the book that is a supposed press secretary memo to a Member encouraging them to have telephone town hall meetings and this is how they set them up.

I know both the Democrats and Republicans have operations to help new Members with social media. There's the occasional competition, it’s pretty fun. That happens between the D's and R's over who can get the most tweets out there? The in a bipartisan way, the Congress has operated a hackathon on a regular basis.

And also in the House of Representatives, there's a team called the House Digital Services unit. It's like the Flying Dutchman of the Congress. They're great. They love getting questions from people, they love helping people set things up in new ways. So there are some resources available.

Yeah, that's those are all great answers. And I know those are great. I will also shamelessly plug, the House Democratic Caucus and the Republican Conference also have digital training for staff as well. So just some great resources all around. But thanks so much.

Conclusion

Taylor J. Swift: From mobile district office hours to FaceTiming with constituents and hosting music festivals and more. Our guests really ran the gamut this episode, and we really hope that it inspired you to consider the world of opportunities available to make sure that you can not only do good work in Washington, but that it resonates with your constituents back home.

Aubrey Wilson: Yeah, I completely agree, Taylor. You know, when we were thinking about topics for different episodes, translating impacts from DC to the district was a topic that we obviously knew was going to be important. But I think that the feedback and insights that we got from each of our guests really showcased that this is a challenge that every single Member of Congress deals with not only, you know, their freshman term, but it's different even Congress to Congress.

Depending on what's happening in DC and with hearing from young Members of Congress, you know, experienced Chiefs of Staff and all of these different creative approaches that they took, I think it really highlights that this is one aspect of being a Member of Congress, where you can really break the mold with tradition and approach it in your own way to meet your constituents where they are.

Taylor J. Swift: It's a really, really good point. We want to extend our extra special thanks to all of our guests, including Representatives Kat Cammack, Representative Maxwell Frost, and Representative Bryan Steil, along with Brad Fitch and Betsy Wright Hawkings for taking the time out of their busy schedules to share their wisdom.

Aubrey Wilson: And thank you for tuning in to Gavel In and spending some quality time with your friends at POPVOX Foundation. If you found today's episode helpful, please feel free to share it with your colleagues and be sure to go to our website, which is popvox.org/gavel to download a cheat sheet with the extra resources that were mentioned to make sure that you and your team are set up for success, both in DC and in your district.

Speaking of which, you can also go to popvox.org/futureproofing to learn how you can make a difference in your new role to ensure that Congress itself is likewise set up for success in the long run. Follow us @popvoxfdn on X and Instagram. We're also POPVOX Foundation on LinkedIn. Thank you for your service and we'll see you in Congress.

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