Prepare to Meet With Your State and Local Representatives

Meeting with your representatives is one of the most effective ways to press for urgent action. Right now, state and local governments are the only institutions still capable of protecting the people and defending the Constitution. Use this meeting to urge your officials to step up, take responsibility, and act.

Start by identifying your representatives. Then contact their office by phone, email, or in person to request a meeting. If you’re calling, you can say something like:

Hi, I’m a constituent of [Name of Representative], and I’d like to schedule a brief meeting to discuss a state-level Act responding to the breakdown of constitutional governance at the federal level. Please let me know a good time for me to come in for a meeting.

If you’d like help preparing for your meeting, let us know. We can provide talking points, answer questions, and help you feel ready to go in.

You may also want to bring a printed copy of the Restore the Constitution Act to leave behind.

Before the Meeting

• If you're meeting with others, coordinate beforehand to decide who will lead and what key points each of you will cover.
• Be on time and be respectful. Your goal is to build pressure and credibility.
• Do a little research on the official. For example, have they criticized unlawful actions by the federal executive? Expressed concern about political interference in federal agencies? Opposed attempts to suppress dissent or spread disinformation about elections?
• Be prepared to speak from your own experience. What makes this matter urgent where you live?

What to Emphasize

Below are key points you can adapt to your own voice and community. You do not need to say everything. Just pick 2–3 points that feel true and urgent to you. Read through all of them ahead of time so you can bring them in if questions come up.

• The federal executive has abandoned the Constitution—refusing to execute the laws of Congress, defying court orders, violating fundamental rights, and politicizing federal agencies.
• Congress and the courts have failed to stop the takeover. The federal government is no longer functioning as a constitutional government.
• Communities like ours are already being harmed, by misallocated federal funds, degraded emergency services, and lawless retaliation against dissent.
• State and local governments now bear the responsibility to protect the people. If they do not act, no one else will.
• The Restore the Constitution Act is ready for adoption. It states the crisis, commits this legislature to defend its people and work to restore constitutional governance, creates the structure for coordinated, strategic action across jurisdictions, and begins enforcement through a state-court private right of action against federal officials who violate rights.
• The Catalog of Legislative Actions provides powerful follow-on measures to plug into the Act’s framework.

Asking for Action

• Ask the official to introduce and pass the Restore the Constitution Act.
• If they are not a legislator, ask them to support its adoption and promote it publicly.
• If the Act has already been introduced in their legislature, ask them to join as a co-sponsor or vote for it.
• If they’re unfamiliar, ask them to review it seriously and follow up with questions or thoughts.
• Ask when you can check back in—and get a specific date if possible.

After the Meeting

• Make notes as soon as possible about what was said and what was promised (if anything).
• If others attended with you, debrief together to clarify impressions and plan next steps.
• Send a thank-you note to the official—and remind them of any commitment they made.
• Follow up. If they committed to consider the Act, check back in. If they dodged the issue, hold them accountable. If they said no, ask why—and let us know.

Can’t Get a Meeting?

If you're not able to set up a meeting right now, take action another way—send an email, write a letter, or make a phone call. Your voice still matters.

Good luck—and let us know how it goes.