2022 is a state legislative election year—where all of the House seats and half of the Senate seats are up for election this fall.

Candidates for legislative office often ask city leaders for support and/or endorsements. Take time to familiarize yourself with the rules that govern your involvement in campaigns and elections. MRSC also has good information on the dos and don’ts.

Keep in mind that your support for a candidate is valuable – it’s worth the effort to make sure that any candidate you support or endorse understands the needs and priorities of your community. Now is a good opportunity to educate candidates about your community and the issues that are important to your city. The campaign process is a good opportunity to practice your strong city advocacy and make certain that current and prospective members of the Legislature are familiar with your priorities.

Part of being a strong city advocate is creating accountability and having conversations with legislators about how the legislative session went and what the impacts were on your community. Sometimes those conversations can be difficult, with a mix of positive and not-so-positive issues to review. It can be difficult to address disappointment over a vote taken on a policy position when your local legislator also worked hard to secure capital project funding for an important city priority.

But, you shouldn’t shy away from these conversations, just make sure to say thank you and also to talk about why you may not have agreed with their policy position. If you have done the work of building a strong relationship built on good communication, these conversations won’t be so hard and most legislators appreciate the opportunity to talk about these difficult policy discussions. If you haven’t yet built that strong working relationship, now is a great time to start. Take the first step by reaching out to your legislator to set up a meeting or a tour of an important project and get to know them.

Looking for help to improve your advocacy skills? Check out our advocacy tools website, watch the video below, and be sure to come to our Advocacy Academy session at AWC’s Annual Conference on Friday, June 24 in Vancouver.