This time, we highlight a project launched by Candace Moix and Julie Lin, two alumnae of the TechCongress program, to provide a free, robust digital advocacy platform called MyCapitol.ai. AGI supports leveling the informational playing field when it comes to Congress, so this is a very exciting project not only for under-resourced advocacy groups and nonprofits, but congressional staff, too.

Moix told me the idea came from watching Senate staff during her TechCongress fellowship interact with advocacy groups and industry lobbyists, noting the disparity not only of impact on legislative activity, but the understanding of how to connect successfully with the right congressional stakeholders (which is also why we co-developed this advocacy playbook for nonprofits). MyCapitol combines a variety of government data streams to allow users to track bills and issues as well as what topics outside groups, donors, and lobbyists are engaging on. It also integrates with Claude to create bill summaries, draft sample bill text, letters, and policy briefs, and summarize members’ career highlights and policy accomplishments.

Moix and Lin are upfront about how they are using generative AI not only to produce content but help build the platform. They have a thoughtful best practices guide on their website. It’s really about making the fundamentals of advocacy as efficient as possible for small organizations that may not otherwise have the time to engage with full rigor. The data analysis capacity, meanwhile, is intended to help identify the right champions and most promising pathways for legislative proposals, which professional lobbyists and senior staff know from years of experience but is a steep learning curve for everyone else.

As a civic tech project, MyCapitol actively invites user feedback. Moix is hopeful that congressional staff also will use it and discover new use cases to build out. There’s also a lot investigative journalists could do with the platform, too.