Over 2 Billion Political Messages Have Reached Americans Since Mid-September

RoboKiller’s Political Insights Report reveals over 2 billion political messages were sent to Americans in the past 30 days as part of campaign tactics. With the Presidential Election just 12 days away, RoboKiller’s proprietary political message trends show Republicans have sent 1.4 billion political texts, which is significantly more than Democrats’ total of 615 million text messages. Over 40% of these messages have been targeted towards swing states and states that are actively voting.

Political robocalls are on the decline this political season with Republicans placing 1 million robocalls and Democrats placing just over 900,000 in the last 30 days. RoboKiller attributes the decrease to spam calls causing fewer Americans to answer unknown phone calls.

A new technology called peer-to-peer texting has played a significant role in the massive number of political texts Americans are receiving this election season. Peer-to-peer tech sends large amounts of text messages from a unique phone number, rather than an autodialer. Texts from an autodialer that have not obtained the recipient’s prior consent are illegal – making peer-to-peer a clever workaround for campaigners to send unsolicited political texts.

Sending texts in droves is not the only reason political parties are increasingly adopting political messaging as a major campaign tactic. In past presidential elections, political texting has been shown to influence voter turnout, particularly for younger voters. With COVID-19 hindering in-person campaign efforts such as live events or door knocking, Americans can expect to continue to receive political texts in large quantities until the polls close November 3rd.

Looking at these trends in more detail, it is clear both parties are targeting their efforts at 2020 swing states and those that have started voting. Since June 2020, Republicans have been sending more messages while Democrats have been trying to cover more ground in recent months.

In September 2020, Democrats sent 902 million text messages compared to 120 million in June which is an increase of over 600%. Democrats are now narrowing in on states that voted Republican in past elections in an effort to flip key states lost in 2016.

While political robocalls may not be the primary campaign focus in 2020, they are still relevant and often serve as a way to reach older voters. Democrats are targeting states that voted Republican in 2016, but Republicans have still sent 200,000 more total robocalls this year.

RoboKiller has also found an increase of political text messages in states that are actively voting. RoboKiller believes this is because political text messages are a more effective method of increasing voter turnout when compared to robocalls. As more states begin and continue to vote, Americans can expect an increase in political messages to follow.

Generating voter support in swing and active voting states is not the only focus for political messaging; a large number of these texts and robocalls are still requesting donations. States like California and New York are likely being targeted because they provide a higher probability of donations and/or voter turnout due to population density and higher average household incomes.

Both Republicans and Democrats appear to be focusing the least on notoriously Democratic and Republican states respectively, as well as states with a lower population density that do not play as critical of a role in the 2020 presidential election.