One Way to Get a Politician to Yes

Let’s kick today off with a (not trick) question: What gets politicians elected?

Perhaps you’re thinking lots of moolah, special interests, really good hair, social media smarts, doing many, many very, very long podcasts.

And sure, those can all have impact. But they are strategies; they are how politicians get elected. The what is much simpler. What gets politicians elected is enough voters in their district.

The U.S. is sliced and diced up into all manner of legislative districts. In Congress, Senators’ districts are states and House members serve quite oddly shaped Congressional districts of roughly 760,000 people.

For a politician to win an election, they need to woo enough people who live in their district. Which means they need to know their district backwards and forwards.

Specifically, what are the major employers, industries, institutions, demographics. Up here in my own Maine, we’re one of the oldest, most rural states in the country with a 3,478-mile long shore line (I’ll note that that’s longer than California’s coast, which clocks in at a mere 3,427 miles) and a major commercial fishing industry. So that’s a different district profile than, say, New Mexico.

Now what does this all have to do with us?

If we want to make an ask a politician might seriously consider, it helps to frame that ask in the context of their district. Put another way, how does this issue impact the people the politician represents?

Say I wanted to increase library funding. It might be useful to highlight how many libraries there are in the politician's district, what percentage of the district uses them; how libraries are lifelines for kiddos after school, folks who don’t have wifi, programming for retired communities; and what this funding increase would protect or enhance.

Only use credible data! I’d want to be able to stand behind that data seven ways to Tuesday, and twice on Sunday. If you can’t, perhaps don’t use it.

By situating an ask in a district, we’re not banking on a politician caring about our issue because it’s the right thing to do, though that should be reason enough.

We’re making it easier for them to care because we’ve now made it relevant to people they care about - their constituents.

None of this guarantees a politician will say yes. But it lays out a welcome mat for them to come on in and engage on the issue.