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updatedAt: 2026-10-09T22:30:00.000Z
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# Email Legislator
# Email Your Legislator Pages
Email Your Legislator Pages let your supporters email a pre-drafted, customizable message to their local legislator.
At the moment, we support emailing legislators for:
* **Federal**: US House of Representatives and US Senate (full coverage)
* **State**: 49 state legislatures and Puerto Rico, but not Nebraska. Some chambers do not accept email: Idaho House, Maryland House of Delegates, Minnesota House, New Hampshire House, Vermont House, New Mexico, and Puerto Rico.
* **Local**: the city councils of Chicago, Dallas, LA, Providence, and San Antonio, the Milwaukee Common Council, and the LA County Board of Supervisors. Organizations in Canada see only the Ottawa City Council.
**Our support team does not add new legislatures on request. To target a legislature that is not listed, you can add your own with [Custom Legislative Districts](https://docs.solidarity.tech/docs/custom-legislative-districts) on the Professional and Enterprise plans.**
An Email Legislator page requires email, full name, and full address. When you target the US House or the US Senate, it also requires phone number and prefix.
## Choose legislature
Choose the legislatures that you want to target. The page finds the location of each supporter's full address. The message goes to the legislators whose districts contain that location.
### Legislature Selection Rules
**Important**: You can select **up to 3 legislatures** for your email campaign.
**Examples of valid selections:**
* US House of Representatives
* US House of Representatives + US Senate (federal campaign)
* California State Assembly + California State Senate
* US Senate + California State Senate + LA County Board of Supervisors
* Any combination of federal, state, county, or city legislatures (up to 3 total)
**Need a legislature we don't already have?** On the Professional and Enterprise plans you can add your own by uploading a GeoJSON boundary file under **Settings > Legislative Districts**. Once a set is imported and its **Allow emailing these representatives** toggle is on, it appears here as a selectable target. See [Custom Legislative Districts](https://docs.solidarity.tech/docs/custom-legislative-districts) for the full setup and file format.
## Legislator Lookup Blocks
When a supporter picks their address using the address autocomplete field, the form can dynamically show which legislators will receive their message — including each legislator's name, title, and district — before the supporter submits.
To add this to your form, open **Add New Form Field** in the form editor. Pick **Add Text, Images, Headers, & Links...** in the **Text & Formatting** group. Put one or more legislator merge tags in that HTML block:
| Tag | What it shows |
| ---------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `{{ legislator.full-name }}` | The first matched legislator's full name |
| `{{ legislator.title }}` | Their title (e.g. "Senator", "Representative") |
| `{{ legislator.district }}` | Their district identifier |
| `{{ legislators-list }}` | A plain-text sentence listing all matched legislators (e.g. "Senator Jane Doe and Representative Chi Ossé") |
**Example HTML block:**
```html
Your message will go to {{ legislators-list }}.
```
When a supporter picks their address, the block updates in place to show the matched legislators. If no legislators are found for that address, the block is hidden automatically. The block is also hidden until an address is picked, so it never shows empty content.
> 💡 **Default block included**: New Email Legislator pages include a recipients block like the example above by default. You can edit, move, or delete it from the page editor.
The `{{ legislator.title }}` tag resolves to the appropriate title for the legislator's chamber, such as "Senator", "Representative", or "Councilmember". You can use `{{ legislator.full-name }}`, `{{ legislator.title }}`, and `{{ legislator.district }}` inside your email message template to address each legislator by name.
### How the block behaves
* To insert a tag, open **Merge Tags**, then **Legislator**, in the HTML block editor. **All Recipients** inserts `{{ legislators-list }}`.
* A recognized member whose record has a saved location sees the block filled in when the page loads.
* Liquid filters and comparisons do not work on legislator tags in the block.
## How Message Delivery Works
Our system uses different delivery methods depending on the legislature you select:
### Federal Legislatures (US House & Senate)
Messages to the US House and the US Senate go through each office's official contact channels. Federal targets require additional organization information (see [Federal-Specific Requirements](#federal-specific-requirements)).
### State, County, and City Legislatures
**Email Delivery**:
* Messages are sent directly to legislators' email addresses in our database
* By default, your supporter's email is included in the "Reply To" field so legislators can respond directly
* **Important**: Email delivery success depends on having current, working email addresses for legislators
### Delivery Reliability & Testing
**Testing Recommended**: We strongly recommend testing your Email Legislator page with your target legislature before launching your campaign to ensure:
* All targeted legislators have working email addresses
* Messages are being delivered successfully
* No technical issues with the specific legislature
**Potential Issues**:
* Some legislators may have changed their email addresses
* Some legislative bodies may have updated their policies to block automated emails
* Email addresses in our database may become outdated
**If you encounter delivery issues**: Contact with:
* The specific legislature and legislators affected
* Any missing or outdated email addresses you've discovered
## Delivery Methods
Next, select the delivery method. **Individual** sends each legislator a separate email. **None** sends no emails to legislators.
## Federal-Specific Requirements
When targeting federal legislators (US House or Senate), the page asks for your organization's contact details, a short description of your organization, and relevant policy topics. This information helps House offices categorize and route your messages.
## Alternative messages
You start by composing a default message that will be sent to all legislators. This is the main message - which will typically be encouraging legislators to support specific action or piece of legislation.
You can add additional messages if you want to target particular legislators with alternative messages (e.g. thank some legislators for supporting a policy, while encouraging holdovers with a separate message). Click the **Add Alternative Email** button below your messages. Add as many alternative messages as you need. In each one, select the legislators who get it instead of the default message.
Alternative messages are optional, but you may want to consider whether all legislators within the targeted legislature ought to be receiving the same default message.
## Allowing Users to Customize Messages
By default, your supporters will send the exact message you draft to legislators. However, you can allow supporters to personalize the message before sending it, which can increase authenticity and engagement.
### How to Enable Message Customization
**Step 1: Add a Multiline Text Field**
In the form editor, open **Add New Form Field**. Pick **Multiline Text** under **Custom Form Fields** and **Keyboard Entry**. Give the field these settings:
* **Name / ID**: Open **Extra options** to set it. Choose a descriptive name (e.g., `user-message`, `custom-message`, `personal-note`). You use this name in the merge tag in Step 2.
* **Preset Value**: Enter your default message text that users can edit. It can include member merge tags such as `{{ user.first-name }}`, which fill in for members the form recognizes (see [Preset values and merge tags](/docs/forms#preset-values-and-merge-tags))
* **Editable**: Ensure this is set to `true` (enabled)
* **Label**: Something like "Your Message" or "Customize Your Message"
**Step 2: Use the Field in Your Email Template**
In your email message to legislators, insert the field using liquid template syntax with the field name you chose:
```
Hi {{ legislator.title }} {{ legislator.full-name }},
{{ user-message | newline_to_br }}
Sincerely,
{{ user.full-name }}
{{ user.zip-code }}
```
The `{{ legislator.title }}` tag resolves to the appropriate title for the legislator's chamber, such as "Senator", "Representative", or "Councilmember".
**How it works:**
1. Your supporters see the form with the pre-filled message (your preset value)
2. They can edit and customize the message as desired
3. When they submit, their customized message is sent to the legislator
4. The `{{ user-message }}` tag in your email template is replaced with their custom text. State and local emails lose the supporter's line breaks unless the tag is `{{ user-message | newline_to_br }}`.
**Example Use Cases:**
* Allow supporters to add personal stories about how an issue affects them
* Let supporters explain why they care about the legislation in their own words
* Enable supporters to add additional context specific to their district
**Note**: You can have multiple customizable text areas in a single form, each with its own field name and liquid tag.