Those text message blowing up your cellphone may just be from one of the candidates or political committees hoping to get your attention and your vote in the 2024 election.
More than 15 billion political text messages went out in 2022 — a huge increase from the previous year and one of the ramifications of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that relaxed federal consent requirements on such missives.
That dizzying number is only expected to rise this year as more and more campaigns turn to mass texts as a cheap and easy way to raise money and communicate with voters.
“It makes a ton of sense in that they’re more immediate — people will look at their phones as opposed to getting something in the mail,” said Davis Houck, Florida State University professor and expert on political advertising. “It’s also super-easy to donate. So there’s just an efficiency argument as to why campaigns have gone in that direction.”
Political text message are hardly new in Tallahassee — two years ago, they became one of the go-to ways to drop dirt on candidates anonymously. So far this year, the campaigns are using mass texts to try to drum up donations and get traction on the issues — including the lingering firefighter pay dispute at City Hall.
One Tallahassee, a political committee chaired by City Commissioner Jeremy Matlow, sent out a mass text in late June criticizing his colleague, City Commissioner Curtis Richardson. Matlow’s committee is working to promote Richardson’s opponent, Dot Inman-Johnson, and his lone City Commission ally, Jack Porter.
It featured a vintage photo of Inman-Johnson from her time years ago as city commissioner and criticism of Richardson for missing a recent executive session of the City Commission in which firefighter pay was discussed behind closed doors.
“Curtis forgets I’ve done this job,” she said in the text. “When it came time for the city commissioners to give guidance on the firefighter’s contract, the commissioner didn’t even show up. I’ll be ready on Day 1.”
The text came a couple of days after Inman-Johnson brought up Richardson’s absence during a Seat 2 candidate forum hosted by the Tallahassee Democrat, WFSU and the Tallahassee League of Women Voters. Richardson responded then that he had been briefed on the issue and was in City Hall but “just lost track of time” and missed the session.
Richardson’s campaign sent out its own mass text on July 3 to announce what he called “fantastic news” and wish residents a happy Fourth of July.
“I have been informed that the city of Tallahassee and the firefighter union have mutually accepted the recommended terms,” Richardson said. “In recognition of their dedication and hard work, our frontline firefighters will see an 11% compensation increase in their next paycheck.”
The firefighter union, which endorsed Inman-Johnson and Porter, has been at odds with City Hall for more than a year over a new contract. Last month, a special magistrate recommended a host of compensation proposals, including raises of varying amounts for firefighters, engineers and lieutenants but not captain and battalion chiefs.
The rank and file bargaining unit that includes firefighters, lieutenants and engineers — which makes up almost 90% of the Tallahassee Fire Department's force — voted to accept the rest of the recommendations, and they will be implemented immediately. The contract covering the 30 or so captains and battalion chiefs will go before the City Commission.
Joey Davis, president of the union, told WFSU that Richardson’s 11% figure was “misleading” and applied only to the lowest ranking firefighters. Richardson stood by the figure, which he said he got from City Manager Reese Goad.
Amid a flurry of election texts, a few hit Tallahassee phones without required disclosures
The firefighter-related texts from One Tallahassee and Richardson’s campaign included disclaimers saying who paid for them, which are required by Florida law, along with opt-out functions mandated by the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association.
Under state statutes, any electioneering phone call or text, including those supporting or opposing candidates or ballot measures, must include the phrase “Paid for by” followed by the sponsor’s name.
Texts meet the disclosure standard if they include a working link or URL to a website with the required information that stays live for at least 30 days after the election. Anyone who “willfully violates” the disclosure requirements commits a first-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail.
But a few mass texts — all supporting the same candidates backed by One Tallahassee — hit cellphones without disclaimers between late May and early June.
“Jeremy Rogers is running for School Board to push back on right-wing extremism and focus on outcomes,” said one of the texts. “Do you support Jeremy Rogers?”
Another text, from the same phone number, started with a “Hey Tallahassee!” and said Inman-Johnson was running “to bring stability, pay our firefighters” and “protect neighborhoods, our environment.” Yet another, from a different number, started with a “Hi Tallahassee!” and said Porter was “a strong advocate for our environment, neighborhoods and working people.”
Rogers, who's challenging School Board member Laurie Lawson Cox, and Inman-Johnson both said their campaigns were not responsible for the texts. Porter said she "always used the appropriate disclaimer" but wouldn't say whether the text in question came from her campaign.
Matlow, who pledged that his PAC would remain positive after creating it in April, was specifically asked but also wouldn’t say whether the texts came from One Tallahassee.
“It sure is nice to get positive political text messages for once,” Matlow said in a text to the Democrat. He added that the committee was “in compliance” with state law and that he was “more concerned with disinformation coming from the other side.”
According to campaign finance reports, One Tallahassee spent about $5,460 on text messages between early May and early July, all with a company called Scale to Win, based in Santa Ana, California. The bulk of them were purchased July 3. Richardson’s campaign finance reports don’t show his text expenditures yet.
“We did our text messages through a company called Switchboard, but we have not been billed by them yet,” Richardson said. “We’re still waiting for the invoice.”
Voters bombarded with fundraising texts from Joe Biden, Donald Trump campaigns
Political text messages shot up 158% from 2021, a non-election year, to 2022, topping 15 billion, according to a study by Robokiller, the spam-blocking app. Some 70% of the texts in 2022 had Republican-related keywords, while 29% had Democratic ones.
Florida saw an estimated 1.09 billion political texts that election year. More than 84% were estimated to have come from the GOP
This year, both presidential campaigns have rolled out untold multitudes of fundraising texts.
“I meant what I said last night: It’s time to send Biden back to his basement & Trump back to the White House,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a Wednesday message after his speech at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
“Robert DeNiro and George Clooney are rallying for President Biden!” exclaimed a text from July 3. The message went out a week before the “Oceans 11” star called on Biden to drop out of the race in a New York Times column. Biden announced Sunday he was ending his re-election bid.
Supreme Court decision opened 'floodgates' for political text messages
The spike in political texts was a direct result of a 2021 U.S. Supreme Court decision that stemmed from a class-action lawsuit against Facebook, said Margot Saunders, senior counsel for the National Consumer Law Center.
In a unanimous ruling, the court narrowed the definition of an automated telephone dialing system in a way that exempted many robo-texting platforms from federal consent requirements, she said. While telemarketing texts and calls still require prior express consent from consumers, political texts and calls do not.
“It was entirely that lawsuit that caused the floodgates to open for political texts,” Saunders said.
She said consumers who don't want to receive such texts should be extra careful giving out their phone number when making political donations or shopping online and suggested using a Google Voice number for that instead. She also recommended using the “Stop” function, which is required by the telecom industry, to opt out of unwanted texts.
“That should stop future texts from that politician,” Saunders said. “What it won’t stop is texts from other politicians.”
Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or 850-599-2180.
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