While Congress and many state legislatures are under Republican control, that doesn’t mean progressives can’t win legislative battles and protect civil rights from being rolled back.
In August 2017, the Texas state legislature tried and ultimately failed to pass an anti-transgender “bathroom bill”. This bill aimed to restrict public schools and other state-funded facilities from allowing transgender individuals from using the bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond to their gender identity.
Passing this bill would have meant a huge setback for equality, and could have set a perilous precedent for the wave of anti-transgender bills popping up in state houses across the country. Thankfully, activists mobilized Texans against this unpopular bill and pressured their Republican representatives to strike it down.
At Stones’ Phones, we know one of the best ways to quickly mount a pressure campaign against legislators is a patch-through call program.
Patch calls go out to voters’ phones, our operators describe the issue facing the district or state, and then ask the voters if they want to be connected (patched) through to their representative to give a personal statement about the issue.
Considering legislators feel much more pressure from phone calls and in-person meetings than emails and letters, patch-throughs provide the most effective way to rapidly flood a legislator’s office with a sustained stream of constituent contact over days or even weeks.
Stones’ worked with our partners in Texas to deploy patch-through calls to successfully stop the bigoted and dangerous “bathroom bill”.
Over many months, we had almost 300,000 one-on-one conversations with voters and connected over 21,000 constituents to their lawmakers to help protect transgender Texans.
Because of the pressure put on by constituents, activists, and business groups, Republican legislators could not agree to pass the bill, which died in the state House of Representatives.
Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, said on the victory, “We recognize that these extremists may not learn from their failures. We remain vigilant and ready to keep fighting.”
Like Mara, Stones’ is committed to continuing the fight to protect and advance equality. With our years of experience connecting constituents to legislators, we have scored victories for progressives at all levels of government.
To learn more about patch-through calls, please contact us and we’ll help you figure out the plan that’s best for your campaign.