Can you write to representatives in jurisdictions that aren’t your own?

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count-brass@reddit

Yes. Sometimes I write to them as majority/minority leader, or to a committee c/o the appropriate chairman. I don’t expect a whole lot, but I do make my ideas known.

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This. Making your ideas known. Whenever I see the nonprofits urging us to write with a form letter written by a member of the respective nonprofit, I delete the text of the message and make whatever ideas I have about the topic or referendum, known. I mean, who even writes an original letter or even an original email to anyone anymore?

It’s honestly sad how those things get rarer with each passing year. It is becoming a brave and a revolutionary act to write any human, politician or not, a personal letter making your ideas known.

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count-brass@reddit

I agree that those form letters are useless. If it’s a topic important to you, then better to write your own words. Elected officials usually want to know your feelings, rather than someone else’s.

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calcato@reddit

Yes. For the most part their website contact forms are all tech savvy enough to make you fill out your location info, so they will send you an Autoreply that either has a "Thanks for writing!" OR a "Thanks for writing but I see you are outside my district so your issue is not at the top of my list because I have to handle my constituents' issues first."

But someone on their staff will nevertheless read it. Soon only AI bots will read them and some analyst will only look at the data.

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ChesterCardigan@reddit

You can, but I would assume they don't pay much attention to letters from non-constituents.

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Dr_Watson349@reddit

Some would say they don’t pay attention to letters at all.

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Suppafly@reddit

Some would say they don’t pay attention to letters at all.

Sometimes staffers or former staffers will post on reddit. It sounds like they generally just browse them enough to sort them into pro and con piles and then, if anything, tell the representative the generally leaning of the letters.

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MangaMaven@reddit

Which /in a way/ can actually be seen as a good thing for concerned citizens. You don't have to spend an hour composing the perfect argument, you can just shoot out a two sentence letter.

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Chitown_mountain_boy@reddit

My rep responded to my letter with a handwritten one of her own last time I wrote her. Guess it depends on who you elect.

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MangaMaven@reddit

I have a representative who -- every time I contact him -- just signs me up for his stupid newsletter where he writes about how much he loves Trump. I'd prefer he just not contact me at all if that's his response.

Meanwhile I have a cousin who contacted her representative about preventing some of her foster children from being separated from their siblings and that rep dropped all her plans and spent the rest of the day helping keep the kids together.

Responses vary a LOT.

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rocky8u@reddit

As I understand it their staffers often skim emails and letters and basically tally how many people contact them about specific issues and what their opinions were.

If they get a ton of constituents on a specific issue leaning one way then the legislator might do something about it, though that might just mean they make a statement.

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GoCardinal07@reddit

I once worked for a state legislator, and we received literally 20,000 emails on a piece of legislation. It was basically split 50/50.

After the legislator decided how he would vote on it, we drafted two letters: one for those who would support his position and one for those who would oppose his position. I then launched mail merge, so all those people got a form letter response addressing them by name. We responded to everyone because when it got that voluminous, we weren't going to sit down and sort through who was in-district and who was not.

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Ibbot@reddit

I once emailed one of my (federal) senators and asked for an explanation of a piece of senate procedure. Two months later their office emailed me back to assure me of their support for a bill I’d never heard of with no discernible connection to the question I had asked.

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MercuryRules@reddit

You're lucky. My senator is Chuck Schumer. I never get any response from him.

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Ibbot@reddit

When I email in, the responses I get are never quite on topic.

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dragonsteel33@reddit

They also know when there’s some kind of coordinated mailing blast and are more likely to disregard that.

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Suppafly@reddit

They also know when there’s some kind of coordinated mailing blast and are more likely to disregard that.

You'd think, but a ton of the regressive shit that happens often gets tracked down to one or two people blasting out minority opinions that get turned into law.

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undreamedgore@reddit

Blast vs long run.

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Cheap_Coffee@reddit

It depends. If you put a donation check in the letter you might get a response. Size does matter.

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ATLien_3000@reddit

A donation check coming to the official office is returned if it comes with a letter asking for (or thanking the rep for) any type of official action.

If no request is included, they can forward the check to the campaign office (at the campaign's expense).

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jameson8016@reddit

(at the campaign's expense).

Oh, boy. Time to start mailing some $0.01 checks to ole Tubberware. Lol. They'd probably just bin it, but it'd be nice to think of siphoning funds out of his campaign account.

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ATLien_3000@reddit

I believe they're allowed to destroy them these days.

Which means you're just costing the taxpayer money.

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jameson8016@reddit

That doesn't actually make much sense. The staffers wouldn't be getting paid more to destroy my check, and I can't imagine they'd have been doing anything more productive with the time they're already getting paid for. Worst that could be said is that I'm wasting my own money, since I'd still have to pay for postage.

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ATLien_3000@reddit

I can't imagine they'd have been doing anything more productive with the time they're already getting paid for.

Unlike most federal government employees, Congressional staff aren't sitting around twiddling their thumbs while on the clock, and Congressional office employee numbers (and budgets) are limited.

To be honest if you didn't care about the cost to you, you would absolutely impose (real) processing costs, so to that extent your scheme would be effective.

But again, you'd be imposing those costs on the government.

Not on the Tuberville for Senate campaign.

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calgon-takemeaway@reddit (OP)

I’ll cut to the chase: (mods strike me down, but hear me out first) my rep was all about going with whoever is winning. One week, she’s auditioning for VP, two weeks later, UN ambassador, two weeks after that all about governor of my state, and then another two weeks after that withdrawing from politics completely because she realized that she has a kid and she should pay attention to the kid.

This past week, she’s going on about “incessant political commentary.”

“American public agrees as it was a major highlight of the [SOTU] speech loved by real America outside of the incessant political commentating world.” Foreigners don’t publicly comment much except to express pity or rage. So anyone who makes a comment who is not “” real America is incessant. Or does she mean, anyone who makes a comment anywhere is incessant? How does she define real America? If we’re American citizens and vote, I think we are real America. So if a speech is not loved, then we’re not real America?

Meanwhile, the roads in my district suck, the schools are subpar, and towns and counties have been left to fend for themselves, and her email AI that reports to care so much about constituents is all jacked up. She responded twice to emails that I never sent her because the AI program that culls her emails needs to be recalibrated…while she chases the glamour around. When she realized she couldn’t have the glamour and be on the side that’s always winning, she walked away.

Don’t get me wrong. She hasn’t been in her district in a long time. She doesn’t plan on staying anyway. She makes some inflammatory statements and then runs away. So please don’t assume the worst about me if I wish I had someone with more of a spine to write to. She doesn’t even try to give us the illusion of having a spine. Now go down vote me 300,000 times. I don’t mind; I’m not a politician.

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GoCardinal07@reddit

I could tell from your second sentence alone that you live in Elise Stefanik's district.

It is worth noting that you can write to your US Senators.

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MercuryRules@reddit

LOL, her senators are my senators: Schumer and Gillibrand. We don't get any response from either of them. I know someone who has met Gillibrand several times. She acts like us peasants stink and she shouldn't have to deal with us.

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calgon-takemeaway@reddit (OP)

Lol, yep. It’s just so fun here! /s

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No-Lunch4249@reddit

Yeah, this is the answer. I interned in a Senators office and part of my job was mail sorting. Everything not from our state we just forwarded to one of the senators from that state.

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Ok_Dog_4059@reddit

To be fair they don't really listen to their own half of the time.

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tcrhs@reddit

You can write to other representatives. They may not respond if you’re not one of their constituents.

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VinceP312@reddit

No, the paper or computer will explode once it figures out what you're doing.

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houdini31@reddit

You bet but you won't get attention from them because you can't vote for them

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No_Stand8812@reddit

So 30 years ago I interned in my congresscritters office for a summer. 95% of my job was answering constituent mail. There was a hierarchy.

Read the letter and look at the return address. If the address was in the congressional district the letter was put in the “48 hour” pile. All letters in this pile had to be answered within 48 hours. If it was a compliment/complaint we had to write out a response based on some pre-written material and have it reviewed before sending back.

If it was a request for something (usually complaints about some local issue like traffic or whatever) we had to determine if it was something we could address first. These issues were things like having no trouble dealing with a federal agency like the VA. If it was something the office could help with it was passed on to someone more senior (they were 20, I was 17) and they would often contact the agency and try and help resolve it. If it wasn’t in our wheelhouse we had to determine what local elected official we should forward the request on to. We had a list! If it was about road conditions it was one office, if it was about local taxes or something it was another.

If the address was not in our district but in one of the 3 adjacent districts we had a standard letter that we would send informing them of who to contact etc. they were carefully worded to avoid giving the “we don’t care” impression and always asked the constituent to contact us if they didn’t get any help from their congresscritter.
If the person was not in an adjacent district it was tossed unless it had something super relevant or weird.

So yes you can write to a congressperson outside your district but at best you’ll get a referral. The office I worked in had a congressman who had no national or even statewide ambitions so different offices probably do it differently now.

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Ana_Na_Moose@reddit

I love the name “congresscritter” lol

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Suppafly@reddit

I love the name “congresscritter” lol

It's super boomer-coded language.

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No_Stand8812@reddit

Ouch. I’m not even 50 (yet… but really close). I have an affection for the concept of the house but not the people lately if that makes any sense. “Congresscritter” to me is a euphemism for the idealized house rep: Eager to serve, focused on passing legislation, no big national or stateside aspirations. Of course many house reps are true professional politicians who aspire to higher office and see it as a stepping stone, but I have an affection for the idealized “Mr smith goes to Washington” vibe. So congresscritter to me is a small earnest mouse who just wants to do good work and serve their community. It’s definitely a term of endearment to a concept.

Now I’ll await the “ok boomer” responses as I ease into my rocking chair.

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Suppafly@reddit

It's one of those old internet things, the original internet people that joined message boards back in the early 90s used to use congresscritter to refer to congressmen. I've always seen it more as a pejorative than how you're thinking of it, like spelling microsoft with a $ in the middle. You can certainly use it as a term of endearment if you want though. Enjoy the rocking chair :)

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No_Stand8812@reddit

Critters are cute in my mind, but I definitely can see how it would be used as a negative.

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Suppafly@reddit

Honestly I might have been reading it as more negative than the original posters meant too.

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No_Stand8812@reddit

I think starting the word with congress immediately makes it negative because we all have such a negative view of congress lol

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Suppafly@reddit

lol that's a great point.

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Ok-commuter-4400@reddit

I have also had Capitol Hill experience and I think the policy varies a lot by congressperson. The office where I worked responded to every letter, but for most issues we had templates based on previous responses to work on. We kept tallies of the issue including an overall tally and constituent-only tally, and pulled high-quality examples from the piles on issues where we were getting a high volume of letters from diverse sources (ie, not just getting blasts from template letters but having lots of unique people writing in unique letters) to share with the member of Congress. We also were familiar with many high-profile people in the district and so if we saw a recognizable name we would pull those, too.

With AI, it’s probably a bit harder to handle the volume now, especially since mass blasts are easier to disguise and make it sound like they’re coming from unique people.

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No_Stand8812@reddit

Interesting. Curious as to when you worked there? I’m sure this varies wildly by office and has evolved over time. My experience was in the local office too, not in dc. Back in the 1900s it was almost all physically mailed letters and many were either handwritten or typed. Today it’s almost definitely a much higher volume due to technology like you mentioned.

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Ok-commuter-4400@reddit

Early/mid 2010s.

I heard that things shifted a lot toward email in DC offices after the 2001 anthrax attack (shortly after 9/11). Ever since then, all physical mail must be screened, which takes like 3 weeks, or it did when I was there, so Congressional websites started warning the public that email would be received way faster.

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No_Stand8812@reddit

I didn’t even think of that. We just got a pile everyday in the mailbox lol. Simpler times.

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calgon-takemeaway@reddit (OP)

Wow, 48 hours, huh? That’s pretty cool. Now I’m thinking that I’ll definitely take the snail mail route. Because of what you said in #3, I’ll write to the congress people who are heads of certain committees, addressing them based on their leadership of such committees. Sounds like it’ll be more likely to be read.

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No_Stand8812@reddit

Absolutely. Mind you this was three decades ago and just one example so email might be better now. I think if someone is actually a committee chair they have a much bigger staff and likely a bigger national profile so they are more likely to interact with a non-constituent.

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MyUsername2459@reddit

You have the Constitutional right of petition under the First Amendment.

You have the basic civil right to petition any part of our government for redress of grievances.

As you're not their constituent, I'd imagine they probably don't pay much attention, but you certainly can write to them. . .and it's even explicitly a right to do so.

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Suppafly@reddit

You have the Constitutional right of petition under the First Amendment.

Even without that, you can send mail to anyone with an address assuming you address it correctly, put a stamp on it, and put in your outgoing mail.

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calgon-takemeaway@reddit (OP)

I was not aware of those points, thank you.

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Suppafly@reddit

You can write anyone you want, but they aren't going to take you seriously.

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calgon-takemeaway@reddit (OP)

I’m really grateful for all the feedback and insight. I’m also grateful to know that people are savvy about this stuff out there. I’ve actually been apolitical for most of my life. (Family was deep into politics, but I wasn’t.) I voted but didn’t think about the intricacies of party dynamics too much. The current apocalyptically-bad state of things is revealing the astronomical levels of lying and corruption that go down every single day in American politics.

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AliMcGraw@reddit

Congresscritters may also respond to you as a non-constituent if you contact them about their pet issues/things they spend a lot of time working on.

Another thing you can do is put pressure on your state legislators (who are much more likely to respond to non-constituents as long as you're in the state). Your Congressman may be a shithead, but there are a BUNCH of people in your state's state legislature who are ALSO worried about losing their elected jobs, and state elections can turn on a handful of votes. Your Congressman has to keep the state party happy because a lot of money flows through state parties and, depending on how your state puts people on the ballot, your Congressman needs the local apparatus and campaigning that runs through state legislators and event your local party committeeperson (who does all the actual legwork of updating voter mailing lists and knocking on doors and arranging rides to the polls and shit like that).

Your Congressman may not care about YOU, but he sure as shit cares if he starts hearing from various parts of the state party apparatus that people are unhappy with him and planning to vote *against the party* because none of THOSE people want to lose an election because HE'S a dickhead, and there's a substantial percentage of those state party folks who are waiting for the Congressman to make one mistake so they can primary him or knock him off the ballot or pressure him not to run or take away his party support, so THEY can go to Congress.

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calgon-takemeaway@reddit (OP)

Thank you for this response. I didn’t consider actors within a party money.

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LetterheadClassic306@reddit

you can definitely write to any representative you want. the staff will still read it, but they'll usually give more weight to their actual constituents when it comes to voting matters. where it can make a real difference is when you're complimenting them for something specific like the judicial hearings you mentioned - that kind of feedback matters regardless of where it comes from. if you want your voice to have the most impact on legislation, focus on your own rep and your two senators. but for showing support or voicing opinions on national issues, writing to others is totally fine and they do track it.

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calgon-takemeaway@reddit (OP)

Thank you for this insight.

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Danibear285@reddit

Sure! Will they pay attention? 🤷🏽

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kmoonster@reddit

Depends on what you're asking for.

They definitely can't help with constituent specific matters or a particular need for your town (eg. a road repair or a bridge replacement).

Sometimes they can help with a suggestion for legislation you would like to see, but you would have to ask.

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calgon-takemeaway@reddit (OP)

National issues.

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kmoonster@reddit

For national issues it's a toss-up, but at a minimum they could refer you to orgs that their office works with (and who you could volunteer for or donate to)

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theother1there@reddit

Yes, but more often than not they will simply forward it to your representative.

There is a priority order on how likely they will respond to your request.

If you are a constituent and have an actionable item that they can work on (usually dealing with some federal agency) they are often placed on the top of the pile. In the US, that doesn't cover too much, but common issues are things like passports or dealing with the SSA.

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HairyDadBear@reddit

You can but they're less likely to respond. But any well written stuff would probably get answered by some staffer regardless. At least that has been my experience since 2016

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orcas-@reddit

The best thing you should do find out who is running AGAINST YOUR REP in the upcoming elections (depending where u live primary vs general election opponents) and WRITE TO THEM WHILE CCING your Rep. ie Dear Ms. Candidate, my representative, Mr. Loser, has failed to take action on XYZ. How will you resolve this issue. Then stay paying attention and if u get a good answer, SUPPORT THAT CANDIDATE

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orcas-@reddit

So if u have lame duck definitely write the people competing for ur vote

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calgon-takemeaway@reddit (OP)

I like it. My rep is leaving politics altogether this year, but this makes sense for the future.

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No-Lunch4249@reddit

You can, but they probably won't care.

I interned in a Senators office and anything not from our state, I forwarded to one of the Senators from the state the letter was sent from. I assume nearly all congressional offices are doing that

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Texasforever1992@reddit

I spent several years working in congressional offices. Each office varies in how they handle out-of state mail, but typically once they verify it's just a political message, they'll just archive or delete it with no further action or response. You can certainly contact them, and they'll likely be friendly and polite, but at the end of the day they don't care about non-constituent opinions and it won't accomplish anything.

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ATLien_3000@reddit

There's no ban on doing so.

If you make clear you don't live in the district, I'd imagine they'll only start paying attention to you if you live in their state and they decide to run statewide.

You might get form letters in response, because they're not using some grand government database that tells them where you live.

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calgon-takemeaway@reddit (OP)

Lol, only crazy people do that? My, how things have changed since I was a kid. Sucks to get old. My father once sent a physical letter to Clinton in the 90s. He wrote back and there was even a signature of his name. My dad had it authenticated, and it was real.

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ATLien_3000@reddit

only crazy people do that?

The inbound being physical mail has been an indicator of someone being a crazy person for +/- 20 years.

My father once sent a physical letter to Clinton in the 90s. He wrote back and there was even a signature of his name.

Hope I'm not crushing some piece of family lore; I'd still keep the framed letter. But auto pen.

In the 90's if it was a direct response to a letter, a staffer typed it by hand. If it was a response that could've been done with a form letter, probably just a copier copying the letter onto letterhead.

Then "signed" with the auto pen.

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calgon-takemeaway@reddit (OP)

This was more than 20 years ago. But glad I got the memo.

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CriticalSuit1336@reddit

You certainly can. They may not respond - I'm sure they prioritize response to their own constituents - but I'm sure you can send it at least.

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Wadsworth_McStumpy@reddit

You can. It's very easy to find their mailing addresses online. They pay even less attention to letters from people who can't vote for them, but you can write to any or all of them.

As a rule, some staffer will skim your letter, and may or may not add your opinion to a tally they send to the representative. Emails count for less than letters, letters count for less than phone calls. I'm not sure where faxes fit in, but they all have fax numbers, too.

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Queasy-Flan2229@reddit

Of course you can; you can write to the Governor of Alaska if you want. Just don't expect an answer

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Donald_J_Duck65@reddit

You can write to representatives in other countries if you choose. Who is going to stop you?

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machagogo@reddit

Of course, speech is protected.

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andmen2015@reddit

Anyone can write letters to anyone. However I doubt you can sway them if you want to. In my experience, they just send a generic response back and if you are not in agreement with the way they vote you get ignored.

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stopsallover@reddit

Yes, in some cases it makes sense. If someone in Congress has taken on an issue with national scope (which they should, right?) then perspectives from all over can be useful.

They might also have connections with someone in your area to help you get involved in local politics or service.

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calgon-takemeaway@reddit (OP)

Good point. What you said in the second paragraph is encouraging.

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Salty_Dog2917@reddit

None of them take judicious duties seriously. It’s all political theater.

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IHaveBoxerDogs@reddit

You can write to whomever you want. But they don't care if you don't vote in their district.

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SnooChipmunks2079@reddit

You can write to whoever you want. Write a letter to the Pope and Donald Trump while you're at it.

But the online contact forms for congress critters usually demands that you provide a zip code where you claim to live that is in their district.

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TheBimpo@reddit

Of course you can.

I’m also a mail carrier and I deliver mail from representatives from other jurisdictions to people all the time. 99% of them are looking for money.

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No-Contact6664@reddit

Yep. I wrote to Oregon state reps on behalf of my friend because her nursing license wasn't reciprocated in Oregon and they couldn't work without literally starting over again.

Was so dumb especially during Covid when she had 15 years of experience.

Will it change? I hope so. It's such a dumb policy.

https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2025R1/Measures/Overview/SB966

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sneezhousing@reddit

Sure you can but they won't give it as much weight as someone who does live there

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Avery_Thorn@reddit

I think most candidates will appreciate words of encouragement and support regardless of where you live.

A lot of Republican representatives seem to have degradation kinks, so...

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calgon-takemeaway@reddit (OP)

The last two times I wrote to my rep, she responded to emails that weren’t mine. They got mixed up with other peoples. After three months. I’m guessing that her AI program that she uses to cull them needs to be recalibrated. Communicating with her is like herding cats.

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LSATDan@reddit

Absolutely. But they don't GAF what you have to say.

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Weary_Capital_1379@reddit

They have forms that require you to have an address in their district.

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Prestigious-Name-323@reddit

They’re always asking me for money in texts so I feel like I should be able to write to them personally.

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Thereelgerg@reddit

Yes

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Arleare13@reddit

Of course you can write to them. The issue is whether they'll care about what you have to say. Some might, many might not.

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calgon-takemeaway@reddit (OP)

Thank you everybody!

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o93mink@reddit

You can write to anyone at any time. The mail costs less than a dollar and email is free.

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JustAnotherUser8432@reddit

You can. They won’t care much since you don’t vote them in or out.

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SphericalCrawfish@reddit

You can write a letter to anyone on the world and so long as you pay appropriate postage it will get to them.

The only restrictions are threatening them or sending so many that it is harassment.

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