Two D.C. Lawmakers Are Tweeting And TikToking To Boost Interest In Local Government : NPR

D.C. Councilmember Janeese Lewis George posted her first TikTok recently, encouraging residents to testify in upcoming oversight hearings.

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Screenshot/Twitter

They’re not making the infamous feta pasta, or posting “random things in my Wilson Building office that just make sense” TikToks yet — but two D.C. Council newcomers are trying to spur public participation in local government through their social media channels.

Ward 4’s Janeese Lewis George and At-Large Christina Henderson, the newest (and among the youngest) members of the 13-person legislative body, say they’re aiming to strengthen the council’s oversight powers by demystifying and personalizing them — and doing so using social media tools like Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.

“Both [Councilmember Henderson and I] really see our role, coming in as new members, to make this happen, to actually bring more attention to oversight hearings,” says George, the self-described democratic socialist and native Washingtonian who beat incumbent Brandon Todd in the 2020 primary. “We see it as an effort to get more and more everyday people involved, and say, ‘You can do this.'”

In addition to writing laws, the council’s responsibilities include regular oversight of both the performance and budgets of different D.C. agencies, like the police department or Department of Employment Services. Throughout the year, the council’s various committees hold public hearings, giving residents the opportunity to submit written and verbal testimony — the very type of public engagement that Henderson and George say they’re using social media to bolster.

Lawmakers maintaining active social media accounts isn’t new by any means. D.C. councilmembers frequently use their social media accounts to communicate with residents; At-Large Councilmember Elissa Silverman is currently in a “stiff drink” phase of frustration with the city’s bungled vaccine rollout, and others often share dates of oversight hearings or announce newly introduced legislation online. Ward 8’s Trayon White is perhaps the most active lawmaker on Instagram and regularly posts on Facebook (sometimes at his own peril), live-streaming community conversations and public meetings. Plus, the D.C. Council Twitter for years has taken a casual approach to government communications, and shares links to nearly every oversight hearing livestream.

But George and Henderson say they’re taking a more personal — and creative — approach to their online presence to encourage more resident participation in the council’s oversight process. The duo has appeared on Instagram Live together, and more recently George became the first councilmember to post a TikTok to update constituents on upcoming oversight hearings and how to testify.

George says the video got 14,000 views, reaching both younger and more seasoned residents.

“It just makes a difference for people to see your face to feel your energy sometimes, and videos bring an energy to something that a tweet just can’t bring the energy to, no matter how many exclamation points you put in it,” George says. “I wanted people to feel and get excited about participating in government.”

George says she was inspired to make the TikTok (adding that it took her over an hour to create) after seeing that an upcoming hearing on the D.C. DMV had no public witnesses signed up (even though she says she had heard herself from constituents frustrated with the agency). She says low turnout for hearings is a detriment to improving the city’s operations.

“I think [oversight] is one of the best chances that council members and community members have to hold agencies accountable, and also advocate for a budget that meets our needs,” George says. “Sometimes less than a dozen public witnesses will show up to testify on agencies with budgets in the tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions, and every time that happens, it’s really a missed opportunity to make government work better.”

While Henderson hasn’t dipped her toes into TikTok’s waters yet, she’s using Twitter threads to spotlight oversight hearings, whether to let people know when they’re happening or to provide a CliffNotes-synopsis of hearings residents may have missed. As Henderson puts it, social media can be a way of keying constituents in on what she says may be the less “sexy” but still influential parts of city government.

“Sometimes some of the questions that we ask at performance oversight hearings are technical in nature, but boring to the public,” Henderson says. “So I’m not choosing to tell you everything that happened over the course of a five-hour performance oversight hearing, but here are some bits and pieces that don’t know about what’s going on in the government that (A) you should know, and (B) could actually help you out.”

To Henderson, Twitter is a more direct way of communicating with residents online than other channels of communication (like her newsletter) and a step towards personalizing the relationship between lawmakers and the residents they represent — especially during a time when traditional means of in-person interaction aren’t happening.

“People like to be able to respond on Twitter and then if you’re able to answer their question, for them it seems like they’ve had a touch,” Henderson says. “And I actually think that in a pandemic, it’s been more important to use these types of tools to connect and reinvigorate people’s interest in what’s going on with local government, because I can’t see you at a community meeting or a block party or parade. Social [media] is one of those ways that I can tell you know almost on a daily update, ‘Hey this is what I’m doing today on behalf of you.'”

Christina Henderson won in the crowded general election race to replace outgoing At-Large Councilmember David Grosso, her former boss.

Whitney Porter/Christina Henderson campaign

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Whitney Porter/Christina Henderson campaign

The new councilmembers’ emphasis on oversight participation also comes in the year of Zoom, as most of the council’s operations are taking place virtually.

In non-pandemic times, residents wishing to testify would need to make a trip to the Wilson Building and sit through what could be a day-long meeting. (They could submit written testimony separately.) Now, residents can testify virtually from their home, car, or while walking the dog. While Henderson and George say that the virtual platform still has access barriers for less tech-savvy residents, they’ve seen others embrace it; council-watchers and elected officials say they’ve noticed an uptick in the number and diversity of people testifying at hearings on everything from unemployment benefits to rent control.

Bhavna Changrani is a Petworth resident who testified before the council for the first time during a transportation oversight hearing last month, something she says she would have never done had the meeting not been virtual.

“I just wouldn’t have had that opportunity to do that if it was done in person on a workday,” Changrani says. “And as invested as I am, I think time off is a real factor, like people don’t even have vacation days, let alone sick days, so having to do this during a workday is probably not the best way to get folks who want to come to voice their concerns.”

Changrani says she decided to testify after she reached out to George’s office with her traffic concerns, and was encouraged to participate in the upcoming hearing. While she’s just one resident, she says the input of regular residents felt like it carried weight in the hearing.

“I do think it mattered… that I was speaking from a resident’s perspective. I think it’s always helpful to hear not just from folks who are elected or run in any capacity,” Changrani says. “I think it makes a difference if you have people who are invested enough, and show up enough, you’re gonna have folks who will engage you and want answers to the issues that they’ve raised.”

To George, Changrani’s experience speaks to the way she views her position as both a lawmaker and a member of the community, working both with and for her constituents. To prepare residents for upcoming testimonies, George says her office plans to use a Ward 4 budget engagement meeting as a “practice round,” where residents can get comfortable testifying in front of her before speaking in front of all 13 members.

“I think to be an effective councilmember, we need to be organizers as much as we are legislators,” George says. “So using social media and getting people involved in oversight is a way of me creating that change, where we’re organizing individuals to be active, not just around small issues, but active around our government.”

When the pair was elected to the council in November, they shifted the legislative body to a majority-female and majority-Black makeup for the first time since 2012, while also signaling a left-ward swing following the departures of Ward 2’s long-time business-friendly member Jack Evans and Ward 4’s Todd, a close ally of Mayor Muriel Bowser. Part of their success in the campaign was driven by virtual events and online engagement, a strategy that Henderson says removes the formality of governing — in a good way.

“I don’t feel like the government has to be stuffy,” Henderson says. “I also feel like as councilmembers we have a responsibility not just to do oversight and do legislation but we also have a responsibility to communicate, and this is one of the methods of which we feel like is effective in terms of communicating and catching the attention of people.”

Neither member says they expect their colleagues to dive into social media or “step up their game,” in response, but Henderson joked that they might consider a training (like Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did for her House colleagues) on the ins and outs of effective social media strategies.

“Should any of our colleagues be interested, I’m sure Janeese and I could put something together,” Henderson says.

This story is from DCist.com, the local news website of WAMU.