Why this is worth ten minutes
You tell us where you stand. We publish it exactly as you wrote it, with the date. We do not grade it, rank it, or attach a comment to it.
- Equal space. Every candidate in your race is invited on the same day, with the same wording, and appears in the same layout, in alphabetical order by last name.
- Free airtime. Answer the issues and we send you a recording link for a segment on local public radio, aired unedited, at no cost to you.
- No endorsement, ever. We support four bills. We do not support or oppose any candidate or any party, and we never will.
- Oppose all four and you are still treated exactly the same. A clear no is an answer, and voters deserve it.
Read the bills first if you have not: all four in plain English, with the full text of each one.
Recording your five minutes
Once your issues are in, we send a recording link. There is no studio to book and no appointment to keep.
- Pick a quiet room. Soft furniture helps. A closet with clothes in it sounds better than an office.
- Hold the phone a hand's width from your mouth, slightly off to the side, and keep it still.
- Say the issue, then talk for five minutes. What the problem looks like in your district, what you will do about it, and how voters can hold you to it.
- Talk to one person, not a room. The listener is in a truck or a kitchen. Reading a speech sounds like reading a speech.
- Start over as many times as you like. Only the take you send is used, and it airs exactly as you sent it.
At the end of your last segment, state your position on each of the four bills. That is what most listeners are waiting for.
If you would rather not
That is your call, and we will not pester you. The board will show that you were invited, with the date, and that there is no response on file. It will not say anything else about you, because there is nothing else to say.
You can change that at any time, including the week before the election. Send your answers and they go up with the date you sent them.
Questions from campaigns
- Who sees this first? Our volunteers, who post it without editing. We do not share it with your opponent before it is public, and we do not sit on answers.
- Can staff fill it in? Yes, as long as the candidate approves the wording. The typed signature is the candidate's.
- Can we send our own letter instead? Yes. Anything signed and dated works. This form is here to make it quick, not to make it a requirement.
- What if a bill changes before filing? We post the new version, say what changed, and give you the chance to update your position.
- When do you need this by? October 10 for the radio schedule, so stations can place the segments before early voting starts on October 19. For the record on this site, any answer received by October 27, one week before the election, goes up while people are still voting. After that we still post it, just later.
- Who reads it? info@texasstandstogether.org, monitored by our volunteers, who post it without editing.