For Iranians in America
Build an Iranian voting bloc
Politicians do not answer to communities. They answer to voters they can count. This page shows Iranians in America how to become voters a member of Congress can count, and has to.
Why it can work
- We are many, and we live close together. About 750,000 Iranian Americans live in the United States. Half of them, 375,000, live in California, and 230,000 in the Los Angeles area alone. Votes that sit in a few districts count for more than votes spread thin.Source: Pew Research Center, 5 March 2026
- Most of us can vote. Six in ten Iranian Americans were born abroad, and about eight in ten of those have become citizens. Everyone born here is a citizen already.Source: Pew Research Center, 5 March 2026
- Neither party owns our vote. In a poll before the 2024 election, 45 in 100 Iranian Americans leaned to one candidate for president and 41 to the other. A vote that can go either way is a vote both parties have to earn.Source: Zogby poll of Iranian Americans, August 2024 (404 people)
- Offices listen to voters who show up. Asked what moves a member of Congress who has not made up their mind, 94 in 100 congressional staff said a visit in person from people who live in the district. For a form email it was 56.Source: Congressional Management Foundation, 2017
Of the 539 members of Congress, 9 are on record about Prince Reza Pahlavi. The other 530 have said nothing we could find. Mostly, nobody who votes for them has asked.
First: what you are allowed to do
It depends on your papers. This is what the United States government's own pages say about federal elections.
- US citizen
- Vote, give money, volunteer, run for office, lead the group.
- Green card holder
- Give money and volunteer like a citizen. May not vote.
- Visa, asylum case, or no green card yet
- Volunteer without pay, speak, write, come to meetings. May not vote, may not give or spend money on an election, and may not take part in the group's decisions about elections.
Sources: FEC, Foreign nationals, FEC, Volunteer activity, usa.gov, Who can and cannot vote
Speaking about Iran, signing a petition and asking a politician a question are open to everyone, whatever their papers.
Seven steps
- 1
Pick your ground
One House district: yours. Two hundred Iranian voters in one district outweigh two thousand spread across a state, because only the two hundred can all vote in the same race. Find who represents you, then look up their Iran grade here.
- 2
Find your first ten
Start with the people you already argue about Iran with: family, the Persian market, the Nowruz table, the friends you eat with on Fridays. Ten who mean it are worth more than a thousand who liked a post.
Then find the ones you have not met. Say where you live in our Discord, or write one line in the box at the foot of this page: your city, and that you are starting a bloc.
- 3
Agree on four things, and only four
Iranians abroad split over everything, and politicians know it. A bloc holds only if it votes on a short list and leaves every other quarrel at the door. The list is already written. It is the four things this site grades: the Islamic Republic must go, stand with the Iranian people, stand with Prince Reza Pahlavi, no ties to the MEK.
- 4
Make yourselves countable
A politician cannot fear a feeling. Keep a list: name, street, citizen or not, registered or not. Get every citizen on it registered and checked, and know your number.
Every state sets its own deadline to register, and some fall a month before the election. Check today.
- 5
Ask on the record
Go to the district office in person, as a group, with the member's page from this site in your hand. Ask three questions and ask for a yes or a no.
- Do you want the Islamic Republic gone, and will you vote that way?
- Will you say in public that the President should meet Prince Reza Pahlavi?
- Will you stay away from the MEK: its events, its money and its resolutions?
Write down the answer, the date and who gave it. If they say it in public, on video or in a post, send us the link. We check it, and what holds up goes on their page and into their grade.
- 6
Vote together, then tell them
Vote in the primary, not only in November. In most districts the primary decides the seat, and few people vote in it, so two hundred votes go a long way.
After every election, write one short letter to the winner and to the loser: how many of you there are, and the four things you voted on.
- Most seats are settled in the primary. In 2024, 87 in every 100 House races were in effect decided in the primary, by 7 in every 100 eligible voters.Source: Unite America, 8 October 2024
- 7
Keep the score between elections
A promise is tested at the next vote. The grades here move as Congress votes. When your member keeps their word, thank them in public. When they break it, say so in public, and take the page to your next meeting.
Others have done it
- Armenian Americans. A community also centred on Los Angeles. Its national committee grades every senator and representative on Armenian issues and publishes the report cards before each election. Congress now has an Armenian caucus led by two Republicans and two Democrats.Source: ANCA report card, Congressional Armenian Caucus
The scorecard is the hard part, and for Iran it already exists. It is this site. What is missing is the voters who use it.
If your group touches money
- Meeting and talking need no permission. Meeting, agreeing on what you vote on, visiting an office and posting online are free to do.Source: FEC, Volunteer activity
- The line is $1,000. A group whose main purpose is to influence federal elections has to register with the Federal Election Commission within ten days of raising or spending more than $1,000 in a calendar year.Source: FEC, Registering a nonconnected committee
- What one person may give. In 2025 and 2026 a citizen or green card holder may give a candidate up to $3,500 for each election. The primary and the general election count separately.Source: FEC, Contribution limits
This is our reading of the government's own pages, linked under each line. Your state has its own rules for state and local races.
What this site does, and what it does not
We publish the record: every vote, every sourced statement, every grade. We do not endorse or oppose any candidate. We do not take money for any bloc, and we do not run one or decide anything for one. Yours is yours.
Start with one line
Write your city and that you are starting a bloc. We print the city, never your email, so the people near you know they are not alone.
Have your say
Tell us what you think of a grade, send a video, or send the source we are missing. We read everything before it goes on a page, and we fix what holds up.
Leave out anything private about anyone. What goes on a page and what does not