Democrats I Don't Know Keep Texting Me

Please stop.

---

[This blog will always be free to read, but it’s also how I pay my bills. If you have suggestions or feedback on how I can earn your paid subscription, shoot me an email: cmclymer@gmail.com. And if this is too big of a commitment, I’m always thankful for a simple cup of coffee. And yes, I’m available for Pride Month speaking engagements.]

---

“I texted you Wednesday. I texted you Thursday. And now I’m texting you — again. That’s how important this is.”

I stared at the unsolicited message on my phone from the backseat of an Uber, sent to me at 10pm last night from a Democrat to whom I’ve never donated and never given my number.

Because I’m classy gal, I’ll refrain from calling out this Democrat by name, but I’ll tell you this much: I wasn’t pleased.

First of all, they hadn’t texted me on Wednesday or Thursday, and I know that because if they had, I would have blocked their number by the close of Hump Day.

Second, why is this campaign that I previously didn’t know existed sending me a fundraising text at 10pm? On a Friday, no less?

And this one wasn’t nearly as poorly written and rude as others I’ve received.

My primary job is being an opinion writer. My secondary occupation is doing comms consulting for companies. It would seem my tertiary profession is spending a ridiculous amount of time blocking the dozens of fundraising texts I receive each week from Democratic politicians I don’t know.

It’s reached the point where I spend more time engaging with undesirable, messy, uncreative, and soul-draining texts from Democratic strangers running for office than I do texts from friends and colleagues whom I actually know and like.

I hate that the thanks I get for donating to a Democratic candidate is having my phone number sold on a list to a hundred other campaigns, all of whom send me passive-aggressive texts asking for my donation, often weirdly attempting a guilt trip, as though I knew them.

As a trans person, what makes matters worse is getting unwanted texts from candidates I don’t know that refer to me by my deadname because I made a donation a decade ago to some politician I liked, and now, my number permanently circulates Dante’s Ninth Circle of hellish political consulting next to a name I no longer use.

I know that’s unintentional, but it wouldn’t happen in the first place if my personal cell weren’t passed around by campaign consultants who think nothing of treating my phone not unlike how buzzards pick at an antelope skeleton.

I don’t know these people. I’m sure most of them are nice, and I’m sure it’s good they’re running for office. But I didn’t give them my number. I didn’t consent to them texting me after work hours, especially in the late evening. I don’t appreciate them sending me impolite and surly openers in a bid to get my attention.

And while it wouldn’t surprise me that I probably “agreed” to the fine print at some point when donating to a Democrat I do know and wanted to support, I certainly didn’t agree in spirit to them selling or loaning my number to people I don’t know, who then proceed to harass me with a barrage of snarky and unoriginal texts begging for money.

Some will find this rant uncharitable, but I want to be clear that I’ve reached the extent of my charity with this practice. I held my tongue all last year as unwanted texts poured into my phone like fruit flies to a soda can, and I did so because there were bigger fish to fry, like saving democracy.

But I can’t be silent anymore. This shit has to stop. I am confident in stating that this is hurting the Democratic Party. Faithful supporters are being turned off by this nonsense. It makes them feel cheap and used, but far worse than that: it’s just so relentlessly annoying.

Maybe you’re a Democratic consultant whose speciality is SMS campaigning, and your livelihood depends on this approach. That’s unfortunate, and also: when you engage in this soulless, tacky, and counterproductive practice, you are hurting the party.

Democratic candidates: I realize it’s hard to fundraise—believe me, I sit on enough non-profit boards to understand the frustration of our current landscape—but please heed my warning. People do not like this. It makes them angry. It makes them want to pointedly avoid contributing to you.

I’m not running for office, but if I were, one of my first pledges would be that I would never text a potential donor who didn’t specifically consent to it, and I’d never sell their number to another campaign. Your number would be buried with the end of my candidacy.

STOP.

---

---