# Anyone else? The political junk texts blitz? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 13, 2026, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-the-political-junk-texts-blitz/1033813 "2026-10-13T20:21:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2026, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-the-political-junk-texts-blitz/1033813/21 "2026-10-14T14:11:40Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I get almost zero R-spam or anti-D spam. You’re lucky then (depending on the medium in question). Here’s my latest sample, and yes they skew overwhelmingly in favor of GOP candidates: [![](https://i.postimg.cc/VkCX19mH/Lying-Liars.jpg) ](https://i.postimg.cc/VkCX19mH/Lying-Liars.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Tride](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tride/32/13907_2.png) [@Tride](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tride)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2026, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-the-political-junk-texts-blitz/1033813/22 "2026-10-14T16:37:47Z")
Yeah, I have given money to various candidates and organizations, so I get 10 texts and 20 emails a day. Got a personal call from Bodner a couple weeks ago… Lots of Tallarico for sure. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2026, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-the-political-junk-texts-blitz/1033813/23 "2026-10-14T18:57:19Z")
Interesting thing just happened. I too have been getting texts on behalf of James Talarico begging for money. Off and on for months. I’m in Florida and have never lived in Texas, nor had any mailing address there, nor a phone with a Texas area code. OK, they’re beating the Democratic bushes nationwide; I get that. Here’s where this latest text from 20 minutes ago gets weird. It claims “We need just one more donation from zip code 98116 to reach our goal. Click [URL] to donate.” 98116 is a zip code on the western side of Seattle WA. I have never lived in WA, nor had any mailing address there, nor a phone with a WA area code. In the Lower 48 states there are only a few pairs of zip codes farther apart than mine and that one. 🤪 But … I routinely get spam phone calls and spam texts from area code 206, the classic old school area code for Seattle. All purporting to be from local Seattle roofing companies, landscape services, or local home repair outfits. That started maybe 8 months ago. Evidently some mailing list source has connected me to somebody in Seattle. And first the contractors and now the politicians are buying that bad data and acting on it. 🤦‍♂️ ETA: A bit more googling on those “find a person” sites suggests there’s a real person about my age who lives there in Seattle. And his and my dossiers are thoroughly intertwined. I hope he pays his taxes and avoids committing crimes. I hope our credit reports aren’t equally intertwined. Welcome to our AI-driven future. I for one welcome arbitrary arrest on the basis of a name coincidence. NOT! 😬 ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2026, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-the-political-junk-texts-blitz/1033813/24 "2026-10-14T22:43:04Z")
Our ballots arrived just now, and we’ll drop them off shortly to avoid the frenetic deluge of communications. ---
**Author:** ![Apodder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apodder/32/17727_2.png) [@Apodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apodder)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2026, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-the-political-junk-texts-blitz/1033813/25 "2026-10-14T22:43:52Z")
Idk…I don’t donate and I get plenty. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2026, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-the-political-junk-texts-blitz/1033813/26 "2026-10-14T22:56:09Z")
I do anf get none. But before elections, there’s a frenzy of contact until your having voted is logged. Then the local elections hopefuls are supposed to leave you be. ---
**Author:** ![Apodder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apodder/32/17727_2.png) [@Apodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apodder)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2026, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-the-political-junk-texts-blitz/1033813/27 "2026-10-14T23:00:01Z")
Ugh, we can hope! I voted last Friday. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2026, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-the-political-junk-texts-blitz/1033813/28 "2026-10-14T23:11:24Z")
Good work! ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-the-political-junk-texts-blitz/1033813/29 "2026-10-16T01:52:15Z")
All my political spam is of the email variety and has been for years. Somehow I’ve never given them my phone number. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-the-political-junk-texts-blitz/1033813/30 "2026-10-16T02:01:19Z")
Oh, I haven’t given money or provided my phone number. But my wife has, and her number is one digit away from mine. So I figure they’re just bombing any and all numbers that are even close to someone who’s donated. ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-the-political-junk-texts-blitz/1033813/31 "2026-10-16T04:24:23Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > Suggested solutions? Any you can recommend? I’m on an iPhone, if that matters. You can turn on Screen Unknown Senders, which when activated won’t notify you of any incoming texts unless they come from someone in your contacts list or are from a number you’ve previously interacted with before. You can set it to still be notified for time sensitive messages, such as one time codes, or transactions, such as receiving a receipt, and other stuff you might want to be notified of. Go to Settings \> Apps \> Messages \> Screen Unknown Senders and turn it on. To see the list of unknown sender messages in the Messages app, tap the hamburger button at the top right, then tap “Unknown Senders.” That way you can check at a glance to see if you missed anything you actually wanted to see. So this isn’t political ad/begging-specific and you’re really just silencing the texts, but it effectively does what you ask. And if it doesn’t work that great for you, just turn it off after the midterms. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-the-political-junk-texts-blitz/1033813/32 "2026-10-16T17:25:00Z")
I believe CO amendment 83 is a trap. No pun intended. Yep, it’s just a nasty time to be alive if you’re bothered by unsolicited voices begging for your money based on some lie, unsupported fear, or other nonsense. Frankly, I feel this sort of thing is important because it’s often the only time you hear from/about the political office in question. “Give us your money, now shut up and get in line so the other party can’t do what they want.” ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-the-political-junk-texts-blitz/1033813/33 "2026-10-16T18:44:17Z")
It’s a _less obvious_ trap than some of the others (eyeballing you 136!), but yeah, I distrusted it and voted against. My wife completed her ballot last night, and I dropped off both of ours at a secure ballot dropbox this morning. Now just to wait for the two confirmation texts (receipt and processed). ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-the-political-junk-texts-blitz/1033813/34 "2026-10-16T18:55:51Z")
I never got political texts until recently. But someone gave my number to the Democrats. I can’t count how many texts I’ve gotten from the Talarico campaign. I marked them all as spam. My husband suggested i attempt to reply with “stop”, and that seems to have helped, even though every one came from a different number. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-the-political-junk-texts-blitz/1033813/35 "2026-10-16T19:25:59Z")
I’ve been getting tons of them this week. In fact I just looked now and there were three more that weren’t there this morning. Good thing is my iPhone is _excellent_ about screening them. I just checked my deleted messages and I received 18 in the past 3 days and all of them except one were sent to the Unknown Senders folder, which means I don’t get alerted to them and they don’t show in my Unread messages. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-the-political-junk-texts-blitz/1033813/36 "2026-10-16T19:53:39Z")
I just looked at my phone after 2 hours of it being in silent mode. 8 texts, each purportedly from a different D candidate or D-backing PAC or something. Each saying “Time is running out, I’m pulling ahead, the Rs here are in a disarrayed rout, but I still need more money.” Each in their own way of course; these aren’t fill in the blank clones of each other. And each from a new number. I predict the next couple of weeks (and weekends) are gonna be rough. ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2026, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-the-political-junk-texts-blitz/1033813/37 "2026-10-17T04:40:17Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I predict the next couple of weeks (and weekends) are gonna be rough. Have you tried enabling the spam/screen unknown senders functions on your phone that have been mentioned in this thread? I didn’t catch what platform you use, but both iOS and Android have them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-the-political-junk-texts-blitz/1033813.md?page=1)