RateMyRep

Inspiration

Civic engagement is about more than voting. It’s about consistently speaking out and shaping the communities we live in. Whether it’s contacting representatives, attending town halls, or participating in local initiatives, every action matters. When research is being defunded, food regulations are being dismantled, and DEI getting eradicated, your voice matters even more. However, keeping up with current events and contacting representatives can be time consuming and frustrating. RateMyRep uses a review and rating system to amplify everyday voices often obscured by social barriers, streamline information about current policies, and hold representatives accountable.

What it does

After entering their state code, users gain access to representatives actively voting on bills that affect their everyday life. The representative's information such as name, party, office address, and phone number will be displayed. Users can then click on a representative's profile to check out the bills that they've sponsored or cosponsored, as well as use AI to quickly generate a message about bills they want to talk about. They can also submit ratings and take in other user's perspectives, reducing bias and deepening mutual understanding. By using technology to make keeping track with local policies accessible to everyone and encourage public discourse, we empower communities, strengthen democracy, and move closer to a more equitable, inclusive world

How we built it

We have a frontend and backend repository in order to conceal API keys. We used React in the frontend to display information digestibly and FastAPI in the backend to fetch information from APIs. PostgreSQL is used to keep track of reviews and ratings in the backend as well.

Challenges we ran into

One of the biggest challenges we ran into was finding a common way to contact all representatives. Since most APIs did not have the emails for all representatives, we settled using representative’s phone numbers. We also had to be mindful of ensuring accuracy in the AI-drafts, so we made sure the outputs mostly consisted of the points that the user inputted. We also had a lot of information to display on the site, from the reps to bills to their reviews and made sure to display it in a way where you can easily access anything.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We’re incredibly proud of building a tool that makes political engagement more accessible and personal. From integrating real-time legislative data to developing a message-drafting AI that can turn a user’s bullet points into a polished, respectful message, each part of the system was designed with the user in mind. We're also proud that RateMyRep empowers users not just to know their representatives, but to communicate with them in a meaningful way—without needing to be policy experts. We also managed to not commit the API key for the entirety of the hackathon.

What we learned

We learned that civic tech can not just be about providing data—it has to guide, simplify, and encourage action. Users of RateMyRep often want to be involved, but are intimidated by formal processes and often unsure of what exactly to say. AI can play a key role in lowering that barrier by making sure that the points you want to convey are framed in a coherent way.

What's next for RateMyRep

We’re excited to expand RateMyRep with new features and improvements. Our immediate next steps include adding support for local and municipal officials and improving the customization of AI-drafted messages. Long term, we want to make this platform a go-to resource for transparent, actionable political engagement at every level of government.

Built With

• congressapi
• fastapi
• openaiapi
• postgresql
• react