I retired in January from a 40-year career that was often rewarding and thrilling but at times challenging and frustrating. After advocating for union members, women, and the LGBTQ+ community on Capitol Hill, I began my final lobbying stint in 2019 as director of federal legislative strategy at the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, where I worked on some of the most important issues affecting American democracy.
My wide-ranging experience in public interest lobbying taught me to be an effective advocate for the public good in Washington. From fighting for unions to safeguarding elections, I successfully lobbied both sides of the aisle in the interest of everyday Americans.
The job I stepped away from was vastly different from the job I entered in 1985, when computers and cellphones weren’t available as lobbying tools. Yet the underlying goal—to educate lawmakers and staff on issues relevant to the people I represented—remains the same, as do the challenges. Those lobbying on behalf of the public will always be competing with powerful opponents.
The fights will seem impossible, and the opposition will be better funded, but protecting the public interest in the halls of Congress is a task that must continue. Here are four lessons I would like to share with lobbyists just starting their careers today:
Build bridges early and never burn them. During the final stretch of my career, I often found myself speaking to congressional members and staff that I lobbied at the beginning of my career. Lobbying is built on solid relationships, and it’s impossible to predict which ones will help move the needle on contentious issues today or years from now.
For instance, while advocating on behalf of flight attendants, hard-earned goodwill built with both Republican and Democratic lawmakers helped produce a compromise to ban smoking on aircraft, much to the chagrin of the powerful tobacco lobby. While lobbying for the freedom to marry, building strong relationships across the aisle produced unexpected allies because members of Congress felt comfortable disclosing personal stories about how the issue impacted their friends and families. Maintaining these relationships came in handy for many of my future fights.
Exercising discretion while maintaining a professional and collegial rapport with lawmakers and staff, regardless of disagreement, paves the way for future success. For that same reason, never discuss your meetings where others can hear and never disparage a member of Congress or their staff in the halls or bathrooms of office buildings following the meetings. You never know who is listening, who is friends with whom, and what the impact of your conversation could be.
Know the story you are telling and what opponents are arguing. Early in my career, I learned that my role as a lobbyist was to demonstrate through firsthand accounts how policy decisions affect people’s lives.
The greatest compliments came when those I was lobbying thought I was actually a flight attendant or a food processor because I was speaking the language of those affected and explaining the issue from their perspective. (The flip side is that you also need to understand your opponent’s arguments to explain the issue.) Complete knowledge, honesty, and true stories make an effective lobbyist.
Training real people to lobby and telling their stories would be pivotal to my proudest career accomplishments. Lobbying alongside flight attendants suffering from workplace exposure to second-hand smoke, food processors injured because of factory line speed, or members of the LGBTQ+ community speaking to the Defense of Marriage Act’s impact on their families proved to be the best way to move wavering lawmakers to support our side. These successes came thanks to true firsthand accounts.
Progress begins with compromise. A public interest lobbyist should fight for ambitious policy goals, but it’s equally important to realize the value of compromise in making progress toward those goals.
Unwillingness to give up something to win something larger can leave the most skilled lobbyist empty-handed. When the stakes of success or failure are high, proposing and accepting compromise language can be a gamechanger.
The final achievement of my career was the result of compromise. Campaign Legal Center and our allies in a pro-democracy coalition convinced a bipartisan majority of lawmakers to pass the Electoral Count Reform Act, which strengthened and clarified the nearly 140-year-old law governing the peaceful transfer of power from one president to the next. We were successful because both sides had to make some concessions in the final language for this historic legislation to be passed.
You have to believe in your work. Staying true to yourself, your values, and your beliefs are perhaps the most important ingredients to becoming a successful public interest lobbyist. Because you will be outspent by the other side, having the determination and drive to fight for a cause that you support is crucial.
Your choices as a lobbyist tell a story about you—specifically, your willingness to take on tough challenges and your commitment to improve the lives of those you represent. Decisions about who to lobby for add to the story as well. During my career, industries whose missions I didn’t support occasionally sought my expertise, but I declined, realizing that it was important to protect my reputation as a lobbyist for the needs of everyday Americans.
While the days of “petitioning the government for redress” by standing around in the halls of congressional buildings to talk to someone are essentially over, the role of the public interest lobbyist is more important than ever. Lobbying has changed radically, but the recipe for success remains the same: Be an educator and an advocate; be truthful, fair, and committed to compromise; and believe in the work you are doing. This is the roadmap every lobbyist should follow.
This article does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg Industry Group, Inc., the publisher of Bloomberg Law, Bloomberg Tax, and Bloomberg Government, or its owners.
Author Information
Jo Deutsch served as Campaign Legal Center’s director of federal legislative strategy and was a public interest lobbyist for more than four decades.
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