How to Build a GPT for Your Boss: A Guide for Congressional and Statehouse Staffers

A step-by-step guide to building a custom AI assistant that thinks, speaks, and stays on message like your boss.

If you work for an elected official—whether in Congress or a statehouse—you know the drill: constituent mail, hearing prep, and media coordination often hit all at once. It’s like sprinting on a treadmill that only speeds up.

Enter the custom GPT: a digital assistant trained to think and sound like your boss.

What’s a GPT for a Legislator?

It’s not a generic chatbot. It’s a tailored AI tool built from your office’s actual statements, documents, and tone. It can:

• Understand your boss’s top issues

• Write in their voice—whether sharp and policy-heavy or plainspoken and values-based

• Generate quick drafts, summaries, and backgrounders

Ask it:

“Summarize our position on the Child Tax Credit in 150 words.”
“Draft a press quote on today’s rail safety markup.”
“What did we say in 2022 about wildfire resilience funding?”

And get back a solid draft—in your boss’s voice—ready to refine.

What It Can Do

Custom GPTs are already helping staff:

• Draft consistent constituent mail

• Generate on-brand press quotes and op-ed intros

• Translate policy into plain English

• Tailor messages for different audiences (labor, ag, small biz)

• Build quick reference guides from past votes and statements

If your office has written it before, a GPT can help write it again—faster.

What It Can’t Do

A GPT won’t replace a legislative aide. It doesn’t make political calls, attend meetings, or guess. And a well-trained GPT is built with one non-negotiable:

“Don’t make stuff up. If you don’t know, say so.”

It’s not about replacing staff—it’s about lightening the lift. Especially in high-volume environments where message discipline matters most.

Real Example

Prompt: “Summarize our boss’s stance on permitting reform for a constituent newsletter.”
GPT Response:

Congressman Smith supports streamlining federal permitting processes to accelerate infrastructure projects, especially in rural areas. He believes reform should balance speed with environmental safeguards and local input. In 2023, he co-sponsored the Bipartisan Permitting Reform Act to cut red tape without weakening public protections.

A task that used to take 10–15 minutes? Now it’s 10 seconds to a clean draft.

Coming Up Next (Subscriber-Only)

In the second half of this guide—available to subscribers of The Political Playbook—I’ll walk through:

• The exact GPT I built for a member of Congress

• How you can create one for your boss, using OpenAI’s tools

• Step-by-step instructions for training it, including how to lock in voice and block hallucinations

👇 Want to build a GPT that sounds like your boss and sticks to the facts?