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My Journey to the Center of America’s Political Spam Text Hell
An American journalist investigated why political fundraising texts kept flooding his phone, even though he had never donated and had repeatedly asked campaigns to stop. The messages were mostly intended for a California relative with a similar-looking donor profile, exposing how fundraising operations can misidentify people and continue contacting them across multiple numbers.
The journalist counted 725 texts in 2026, including more than 190 in the first 20 days of October and 21 on 14 October. His relative had made about 160 donations since 2017, totalling roughly $1,700, with a median gift of $6; the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee sent 60 texts despite receiving just one $5 donation from him. Many messages linked to ActBlue and included tracking codes that could help identify the fundraising appeal and sometimes the source of a recipient’s contact details.
In short
- A journalist received 725 political fundraising texts this year.
- Most were meant for a relative who had donated small amounts.
- Repeated opt-out requests failed to stop messages from multiple numbers.
Explained simply
Political campaigns in the United States use text messages to ask people for donations, often through online fundraising platforms such as ActBlue. Campaigns and fundraising groups may contact people whose details appear on donor lists, and those lists can be shared or used to guide further appeals.
This case involves a journalist whose phone number was repeatedly treated as if it belonged to a relative who had donated to political causes. The relative had given small amounts to many campaigns over several years, while one fundraising committee sent dozens of messages after a single donation.
The story raises questions about how fundraising operations match phone numbers to donors, how contact details are tracked and shared, and how reliably people’s requests to stop messages are followed.