Keep speaking up

By Dana Mayber, OFA Deputy Campaigns Director

In a democracy like ours, we send our elected officials to Washington to represent us and to make sure our voices are heard — in the policies they fight for and the votes they cast — and to stand up against anything that puts constituents’ interests at risk.

And when we aren’t fairly represented, we expect answers. But what happens when most of the White House’s rubber stamps in Congress won’t even show up to hear questions from their constituents or defend their misguided votes?

Well if they won’t show up, OFA supporters will — and we won’t stay silent.

While Congress was on recess last week, too many Rubber Stamp Reps refused to hold a town hall to hear directly from their constituents. So, volunteers across the country — from Arizona to Virginia — held digital town hall events to make sure that their voices were heard, both on the ground and online.

Here’s a look at some of the important questions people had for their representatives:

Rep. Martha McSally won’t meet with her constituents to tell them why she’s rubber-stamped the White House’s agenda, so they gathered in Tucson to write out their questions and post them publicly.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher’s constituents want to know what he’s doing to keep their kids safe from gun violence.

Rep. Carlos Curbelo says he’s good on climate, but he voted for a tax scam bill that opened drilling in the National Wildlife Arctic Refuge — attacking clean energy programs and jeopardizing our nation’s largest wildlife refuge.

Rep. Roskam voted to take away his constituents health care and they want to know why.

Rep. Paulsen’s constituents want to know what he is going to do to provide permanent protection for DREAMers.

Our elected officials must be held accountable for rubber-stamping this administration’s extreme agenda instead of representing the people in their districts. At the very least, we must show up and demand that they let us know why they vote in lock-step with the White House on average 94 percent of the time.

We’ll keep showing up and speaking out until we get the answers we deserve. And until we get those answers, we’re going to keep showing up to hold these representatives accountable.

Want to be a part of it? Sign up here to join us or apply to join the OFA Community Engagement Fellowship program, where you’ll learn fundamental organizing skills to hold elected officials accountable and to make sure you’re more fairly represented. But don’t wait, applications for the spring are due by March 14.