5 minPolitics
Political Text Messages Persist Despite Blocks, Fueled by $65 Million Industry
A new tool from reveals how political campaigns use multiple phone numbers to evade blocks, as spending on political texting reached roughly $65 million in the 2024 election cycle.
Americans who block a political text message often find another one arriving from a different number the next day, a practice that persists because campaigns and political action committees spread their messages across many phone numbers at once. The technique, known as snowshoeing, allows a single organization to use numerous numbers to reach the same recipients, so blocking one sender does little to stop the flow of fundraising appeals.
George Weiner, founder of and head of the digital agency Whole Whale, created a free tool to help people identify who is behind the messages after growing frustrated with the relentless texts. In an interview, he explained that blocking a number only addresses one point of contact. «You block one number and you've only blocked one number,» Weiner said. Even replying STOP, reporting messages and registering for the National Do Not Call Registry have failed to stop the interruptions for him. «I have done it all and I still get these messages,» he said.
The messages carry personal costs. Weiner, a father of three, said he worries about missing an important call from his children's school. «That could be the school, right? That could be an emergency,» he said, describing how fundraising appeals often interrupt his phone instead.
Phone numbers circulate through political donor and voter databases, and campaigns may combine registration information with commercially available data to identify potential supporters. Organizations can also purchase or exchange contact lists, allowing a person's information to reach groups they have never heard of. Voter registration records vary by state, and phone numbers are not necessarily public in those records, but organizations can match voter information with other databases to build detailed contact profiles. Federal political contribution records can also reveal personal information, including names and addresses when disclosure requirements apply.
The texting business is substantial. Weiner pointed to approximately $65 million spent on political texting services during the 2024 election cycle, based on his analysis of Federal Election Commission records. He believes spending in 2026 could exceed that amount, though a final election-cycle total is not yet available. PACspam's analysis of FEC records covering December 2008 through May 2026 found reported payments totaling $17 million for Switchboard, $14.4 million for Mothership Strategies and $10.6 million for Message Digital. Those figures span multiple election cycles and reflect reported payments to political messaging vendors, which may include services beyond texting.
«There is money to be made,» Weiner said. Fundraising operations can keep paying to send messages as long as the donations they generate justify the expense, and even a small percentage of people responding with money can make another round of texts financially worthwhile. Some appeals claim a donation deadline is approaching or suggest a candidate faces an immediate financial emergency, while others use provocative headlines designed to make recipients react before thinking.
Weiner also raised concerns about how much money some PACs direct toward candidates. He pointed to investigations suggesting that certain organizations spend heavily on fundraising while relatively little reaches the candidate being promoted. PACs operate under different rules, and not all are established to make direct candidate contributions, making it important for donors to investigate where their money will go.
The problem crosses political lines. Weiner stressed that organizations associated with different political parties use these tactics, meaning the flood of messages is not confined to one side of the political spectrum. For now, the combination of multiple numbers, purchased data and financial incentives keeps the texts coming, even after recipients block one sender after another.
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