Constituent Outreach Quotes

I love working for the people of Ohio, and I have a lot more work to do as their senator.

If I am elected to Congress, I will put the interests of our community first, and I will actively seek input and respond to it.

It is tough to run for public office and face an opponent, to decide on issues what is the best thing, then face the criticism from colleagues, voters, the press and defend yourself.

You can't assume anything in politics. That's why every Saturday I walk around my district. I talk to the longshoremen in Charlestown. I listen to the people in East Boston and their concern on the airport noise. I walk down to the Star Market in Porter Square, and people tell me about meat prices.

Every decision I make in Congress will be centered on the needs of the district.

Senator [Tom Cotton] got a ton of blowback. He became the star of fake missing person's signs, encouraging folks to call if they saw him and also to call him and ask why he had been missing while his constituents were looking for him.

We need to talk to voters in large enough numbers and we need to have conversations that are probing and sustained enough that we understand where they're coming from because nothing is nonsensical. You know, in a democracy, in an election, in an electorate there's a reason why things are happening and it's incumbent upon us to delve deep enough to get at those reasons.

I understand Twitter has become popular among politicians. This technology allows them to stay in perpetual contact with their constituents. The electorate now has instant information about what politicians have been up to.

It's very hard for politicians to ignore even just a handful of letters about the same issue.

Anybody who thinks that getting a communication from a voter in your district is spam - that guy is pork. Roast pork unless he changes his point of view.

If we're going to make sure that we get our legislation right... we need to actually be spending time with Hoosiers.

The congresspersons who are co-sponsoring the bill are being beat up in their districts with negative advertising. We need to go to them and say we understand; we're here to help and on your side.

We are all better off when we raise skills in our state, and I know that Republicans and Democrats are going to hear from their communities, hear from their constituents, hear from the businesses in their areas about really making sure that we've got the workforce to make us competitive and raise wages in Michigan.

Almost any member of ours is more effective with his elected representatives than I am.

So far, Senate Republicans are good at getting Facebook likes and town halls and not much else. Do something.

It's nice not to have to worry about constituents.

The job of an elected official is to communicate, to talk with constituents, to talk with the people of America, and I think Alexandria is excellent at doing that.

In my four years as a state legislator, I went to dozens of nontraditional events - everything from bird watchings to tree giveaways, neighborhood cleanups to self-defense clinics for women - going where people are instead of asking them to come to me. It's how I learned about their struggles and how legislative decisions affected their lives.

[As a congressman] ... you need to market whatever it is you're trying to sell.

We've got to get back to old-fashioned politics that's in touch with the people we seek to represent and to avoid self-inflicted wounds.

On any given vote, on any given day, a smart senator who has taken a bold or controversial position can reach far more media outlets between the elevator and the Senate chamber than he or she could garner in a full press conference back home.

If you've got no base, it's very difficult to function as an MP. You cannot be a 'virtual' MP, you must be a proper one.

When the day of election approaches, visit your constituents far and wide. Treat liberally, and drink freely, in order to rise in their estimation, though you fall in your own. True, you may be called a drunken dog by some of the clean shirt and silk stocking gentry, but the real rough necks will style you a jovial fellow, their votes are certain, and frequently count double.

Serving my neighbors in Congress and fighting for them has been the best job I've ever had.

One of my goals here in Congress, being the youngest member of the California delegation, is to really try and get the institution to upgrade the way it communicates with its constituents.