Civic Engagement for Every State: Why We Built a 50-State App

It started with one question: Do you know who represents you in your state legislature?

Most Americans can name their U.S. Senators. Some can name their House Representative. But ask about state senators, state house members, county commissioners, or school board officials and the answer is usually silence.

The government that affects your daily life the most — your state legislature, county commission, city council, and school board — is the government you know the least about. Your state legislature decides how your property taxes are spent, what your kids learn in school, whether your roads get fixed, and how your local courts operate. Yet most civic engagement tools focus exclusively on Congress.

Better Together: PoP is a civic engagement app that covers all 50 states. We wrote 100 civics questions for every state — not generic federal questions, but questions about your state government, county government, municipal civics, state history, and civic participation. The app includes 7,462 state legislators sourced from OpenStates, the full text of the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence, and voter registration links for every state via vote.org.

We have two apps on the App Store. People Over Party SD is free — our original app focused on South Dakota. Better Together: PoP is $0.99 and covers all 50 states. No ads, no subscriptions, no data tracking.

The entire codebase is open source under the MIT license. We believe civic engagement is nonpartisan — knowing who represents you, understanding how your government works, and showing up to vote are civic duties, not political acts.

Democracy works when citizens show up. Pick your state and start today.