There’s no escaping them. They’re on TV and streaming services. Their signs are on every corner. For some reason, they send you glossy eight-page magazines.
And now they’re texting you.
The politicians got our phone numbers. And I hate it.
Ding! Oh, maybe my friend wants to have dinner or sent me a humorous meme.
No. It’s Chris Miller’s son. I’m not sure of his age and don’t feel comfortable receiving a text message from him.
Unless I give you my number and check a box agreeing to receive text messages from you, I never want you to text me. (And let’s be sincere: If I agree to receive text messages from a company, all I want is that promo code and then cancel the subscription.)
Last Wednesday, I received four political text messages in one afternoon. The first was from Fletcher, the son of Republican gubernatorial candidate Miller, urging me to look at his father’s ad. I received the message twice within 30 minutes. The third was from Morgan Switzer, who is running for Kanawha County District Attorney. The fourth asked me to share my opinion on the 2024 election — you’re not making me click on any random link.
However, the campaign texts don’t really tell me much.
“Look at my father’s ad! That’s Fletcher. I’m Chris Miller’s son. He’s the political outsider -“
(I interrupt this message to remind everyone that Chris Miller’s mother is Representative Carol Miller, who currently represents West Virginia in Congress.)
” — is running for governor. But he is our father first and foremost. Father is fighting to make West Virginia a place my brother, sister and I will never leave. He will fight to strengthen West Virginia families, and he will make sure American patriotism is taught in our schools. Trust me, he will be a damn good governor!”
Does anyone else feel like a hostage? Or the impoverished employees at Texas Roadhouse who have to wear “I love my job!” t-shirts?
Please do not employ your children to send text messages to others.
And how exactly does Miller plan to “strengthen West Virginia families”? The ad doesn’t answer this question either.
Switzer’s video of her text says a little about herself: She says she has “the most experience” and is “the only true conservative choice for district attorney.” OK, but why do you want to be district attorney? What will you do in that office?
No matter how much information these texts contain, I consider them spam because they are unwanted. Federal Communications Commission states that robotext messages to cell phones generally require prior consent. However, campaign calls and texts are exempt from the Do-Not-Call list requirements as long as they comply with certain rules of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
These campaigns circumvent these rules by not using autodialing technology. Instead, the texts are sent by manually dialing the numbers and pressing “send.”
So why do politicians choose to send us text messages, aside from the fact that so few people have landlines (no prior consent is required to receive robocalls)?
Young voters are more likely to respond to SMS than to calls – SMS has a 98% opening rate.
“The average person looks at their phone every six seconds,” Melissa Michelson, a political scientist at Menlo College in California, told NPR in 2020. “So when you get a text message, you look at it. Your phone makes a cute little noise if you’re not already looking at it, and you read the message.”
But if you haven’t signed up or donated money to a campaign, how do they get your phone number? There are databases made up of public records and brokers sell this data to campaigns so they can contact potential voters.
The Republican National Committee is using text messaging as a “critical” part of its Get Out The Vote campaign, RNC spokeswoman Anna Kelly said said AxiosIn 2020, the RNC sent more than 225 million text messages.
These texts have the option to reply “STOP” to be removed from their lists. If you have received a text that you believe does not comply with FCC rules, you can lodge a formal complaintIf you receive SMS messages that you have not signed up to receive, you can also report the sender by forwarding the SMS to 7726 (or “SPAM”).
With the primary election just two weeks away, texting is likely to augment. Our thoughts and prayers are with those who cannot be without their cell phones during work hours.
