ACTION PLAYBOOK:

Leverage the Influence of
Local Officials

Let’s take action.

  • Encourage your mayor and city council to help amplify federal climate policy that will help your city.

    1. Pick a policy priority

    2. Choose who to contact and find their contact information

    3. Strengthen your argument with research (optional!)

    4. Write an email

Choose a policy priority

Open our Issue Briefings page and choose a federal or state policy priority that speaks to you. This is what you’ll be asking your mayor or city council to support, since their voices are influential with state legislators and members of Congress.

Just remember that your chosen policy affects what you’re asking your local official to do. If it’s a federal policy priority, you’re asking for them to weigh in with your U.S. House rep or senator. If it’s a state-level policy priority, they should weigh in with your state legislators.

Choose who to contact and find their contact information

Next, you’ll need email addresses, Twitter handles, and phone numbers for your local officials.

There is so much variation in size and governing structure among America’s 19,000+ cities. Take a few moments to do a Google search for your city’s mayor and city council.

Some questions to consider: Who are the main players on your city council? Are they councilors, aldermen, commissioners, or another title? Is the mayor the clear executive, or is there a flat governing structure? If you live in a mid-sized (100k–500k) or large (over 500k) city, does your mayor ever gain national attention? Are they vocal on climate issues?

If you’re struggling to prioritize who to contact, a safe bet is choosing your mayor and the person who represents you on the city council.

When you’ve decided, pull their phone numbers and email addresses from their official websites. If you’re on Twitter, find their handles as well.

  • To craft a personalized message and increase the likelihood of a response, find out where your city falls on the spectrum of climate ambition. You can use a Google search or a browse city initiatives on the official website. If you have Twitter on your phone, you can click the search icon in the top right corner of their profile pages to scan their Tweets for keywords.

    • If your mayor and/or city councilors are already climate champions, thank them for their ongoing work before asking them to build on it by helping you advocate to Congress.

    • If your mayor and/or city councilors appear neutral or disengaged on climate, now is your chance to engage them.

    • If your mayor and/or city councilors is a climate obstructionist, it’s even more imperative that they hear from you. Policy issues at the city level are the least politicized among traditional party lines. Mayors and city councilors don’t have the same set of political incentives that members of Congress do, and it’s usually quite easy to find common ground. Stick to data about the area (not national statistics) and your personal story about living in the area.

    It can also help to find some city-specific climate impact data to help illustrate how cities will bear enormous costs and therefore need the federal government to act.

Write your email

You’re ready to craft your personalized email! Follow these tips to build an effective message:

  • Start by thanking them for any work they’ve done on the specific issue or other climate policy priority.

  • Write a clear ask: Please help me advocate to [Senator/Representative X] on the issue of [Y]. Specifically, I’d like help encouraging them to pass the [legislation Z].

  • Tell them why you care about this issue as a constituent.

  • Add any research you found in the previous step, plus any talking points from the issue briefing that help you highlight why your local official should care.

  • Consider including these additional requests for other ways they can advocate for federal climate action:

Now to maximize your impact:

  1. Make some phone calls too if you can find a phone number. Use your email as a script. Remember, voicemails are also effective! If you’re nervous about the call, try doing it after hours and leaving a message.

  2. Find the official’s public Twitter handle or other social media page and adapt your message to a social media format. Both private DMs and public attention can be valuable, so try both approaches.

  3. Share what you did with your network. Posting on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. about your experience taking this action can help inspire others to start their own climate advocacy journey.

Thank you for taking action!

Help us improve this playbook: info@climatechangemakers.org

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