Are you wondering how to improve or even establish a legislator relationship that may have gotten off to a rocky start? Many organizations and companies are faced with this every election cycle – the candidate you backed isn’t the one who won.
Aside from what your organization can do (PAC contributions, lobbyist/leadership meet-and-greets), you may also be wondering what your volunteer advocates can do to help “right the ship.”
Here are a few ideas for your volunteers to get things started. These all rely on their ability to get an audience with either the legislator or one of their key staff.
Acknowledge the problem. It’s best to just acknowledge the issue right up front. You can say, “I know my organization didn’t support your campaign.” What you don’t want to do is rehash the past every time you communicate with them. If you can legitimately distance yourself from the decision-making, do so. “Our PAC makes its decisions independently from our Board, so I wasn’t involved, but would really like us to be able to move past this and work together.”
Pivot to the future. “We would really like the opportunity to work together going forward.” There is almost always a way in which an organization can work with a legislator.
Offer to help. Maybe this legislator needs more information about your cause or industry. Maybe they’d like an introduction to your membership. Do what you can to be helpful.
Ask to learn more about their priorities. Give your legislator (or his or her staff) the chance to talk about what’s important to them, even if it’s not something in which your organization has an active interest. If it’s not something contrary to your organization’s policy agenda, and you’re personally comfortable with the issue, offer to help support it.
Make plans to keep the lines of communication open. Now that you’ve had this initial conversation, ask to keep the discussion going. Ask for their personal cell phone number, but promise not to distribute it or overuse it. Ask if you can text them when there’s something important to discuss.
It’s worth the time and effort to build these relationships. My clients have found that, through hard work and nurturing, the relationships they’ve built with these new legislators have been some of the strongest and most helpful, even if the start was a bit rocky.
