Consider the Constitution

Official Message: How Members of Congress Communicate with Constituents

The Robert H. Smith Center for the Constitution Season 2 Episode 12

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0:00 | 24:11

In this illuminating episode of Consider the Constitution, Dr. Katie Crawford Lackey welcomes back Dr. Lindsey Cormack, the pioneering political scientist who created DC Inbox—a first-of-its-kind digital archive preserving congressional newsletters.

From James Madison's vision of Congress as the people's branch to today's digital communication tactics, this conversation uncovers the evolution of constituent engagement and the power dynamics of political messaging. Dr. Cormack explains why she invented this crucial archive solution when she discovered these taxpayer-funded communications weren't being systematically preserved.