Journalist Gets Hundreds of Misdirected US Political Fundraising Texts He Can't Stop

A Wired journalist in New York has for years received political fundraising text messages intended for someone else: a relative, called John in the article, who lives in California. This year alone the writer has received 725 such texts, and 1,735 from 812 different numbers since March 2022. In the first 20 days of October more than 190 arrived, including 21 on October 14.

Two different people

The two have different names, phone numbers and bank accounts. John has made small donations to Democrats. According to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records, he has given about $1,700 across roughly 160 contributions since 2017, and $51 in six gifts this year. Even so, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) sent 60 texts from 28 numbers, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) sent 41.

The writer has replied "STOP" 49 times since 2021, without lasting effect.

The data trail

Links in the messages led to ActBlue, the platform Democrats use to process donations. Their tracking codes often contained the word "Sterling." Sterling Data Company is a small firm that uses AI to help Democrats identify likely donors. Nearly half of this year's texts carried codes that appeared to reference it. FEC data show the DSCC kept paying Sterling, including about $250,000 this summer.

Sterling CEO Martin Kurucz called high-frequency solicitation "a necessary evil" and confirmed the company sends the texts itself and can rent the same record to several campaigns. He neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for this case, and advised simply not replying.

The author notes that at least two people have won settlements from Democratic organizations over misdirected texts. How his own number became linked to John's remains unclear.