Laura De Ruiter, a director at a local biotech company, started by calling her representative in Congress, Katherine Clark.
The line was a little “iffy,” De Ruiter recalled, but she left a message with Clark, who represents much of Middlesex and parts of Norfolk and Suffolk counties. De Ruiter called Senator Ed Markey and had the same problem — a glitchy voicemail that went in and out. The 44-year-old went out to her Medford balcony where the cell service is better and left a message. Then she called Senator Elizabeth Warren, and an automated voice told her the voicemail box was full.
“I just hung up,” De Ruiter said.
De Ruiter was one of hundreds of concerned constituents who, upset by President Trump’s seemingly endless parade of executive orders and Elon Musk’s sweep through federal agencies in the name of the Department of Government Efficiency, turned to their representatives in Congress. She is also one of many who were met with busy signals, full voicemail inboxes, or glitchy connections. One senator — Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska — posted on X that the Senate phone system has been receiving around 1,600 calls each minute, compared with the usual 40 calls per minute.
De Ruiter said she was so incensed by the threats Musk poses to national security that she picked up the phone instead of sending an email — a first for the German national and US citizen who moved to the United States for her job seven years ago.
“We’re seeing the dismantling of our democratic institutions before our eyes, in rapid time,” she said. ”I want the people who represent us to make sure they stop this.”
Gloucester resident Weber Torres felt similarly when he picked up the phone to call Markey’s and Warren’s offices on Monday about “all the craziness that’s going on in Washington, D.C.” But when the call finally went through, the phone trees directing people how to leave a message were “unintelligible.”
“It sounded like an electronic voice that is sporadically cutting out,” Torres said, adding that he also tried calling from his wife’s phone. He tried to leave voicemails for both offices but wasn’t sure whether they went through.
Torres, who had never called his senators before, ended up leaving a written message for both offices through a form on each senator’s website.
Torres was, however, able to reach his representative in the House, Seth Moulton, successfully.
Several members of the Massachusetts delegation confirmed to the Globe that their offices have been inundated with calls in recent days.
Clark’s office said it has received several thousand calls from constituents in the past week.
“It’s an appropriate reaction to Republicans’ betrayal of the American people — we will continue to use every tool we have to fight back for our communities,” Clark said in a statement.
A spokesperson for Representative Ayanna Pressley of Boston said her office has fielded calls from constituents who are “rightfully terrified by the unprecedented Musk-Trump assault on our democracy and what it means for their families.”
Her staff has been taking live calls, logging voicemails, and calling people back, the spokesperson, Ricardo Sánchez, said.
A spokesperson for Representative Richard Neal’s office said all three of his offices — in D.C., Springfield, and Pittsfield — have seen “a significant uptick in calls,” particularly about Musk’s access to personal tax information. Neal represents the western part of the state, including the cities of Springfield, Chicopee, Pittsfield, Westfield, and Holyoke.
Jack Chamberland, the spokesperson, said at least 75 percent of daily calls from constituents the past few days have been people voicing concerns about the new administration.
A spokesperson for Representative Jake Auchincloss, who represents the southern part of the state to the Rhode Island border, said one of his district offices experienced “brief technical difficulties on Monday” and that his D.C. and district offices in Newton and Attleboro are receiving an “increased volume of callers.”
A spokesperson for Representative Jim McGovern, whose district encompasses much of Franklin, Hampshire, and Worcester counties, said while there haven’t been technical issues with the phone lines, the office’s call volume has been “exceptionally high with outrage over Donald Trump’s actions.”
Sydney Simon, a spokesperson for Moulton, said his two offices in D.C. and Salem collectively answered 700 calls on Tuesday alone, most of which were about Trump and Musk.
It’s not just Massachusetts.
In Maine, the office of Representative Chellie Pingree, a Democrat, told the Portland Press Herald that her office has received thousands of calls from “panic-stricken” constituents over news that Trump had given Musk access to US Treasury records.
Pingree’s colleague, Representative Jared Golden, also a Democrat whose district covers the state’s vast Second Congressional District, expressed a similar sentiment about Musk.
“My constituents and a majority of this country put Trump in the White House, not this unelected, weirdo billionaire,” he told the Press Herald.
Samantha J. Gross can be reached at samantha.gross@globe.com. Follow her @samanthajgross. Emily Spatz can be reached at emily.spatz@globe.com. Follow her on X @emilymspatz.