In the last days of the campaign, the pinging of phones can be relentless.
For the millions of Americans on the radar of the Kamala Harris and Donald Trump campaigns and those of their allies, the apocalypse is only a text message away.
The very future of the republic is at stake, some of the texts say and many others imply. But you — yes, YOU, Sally, Jose or insert-your-first-name here — can save it. For as little as $7.
Texting is a cheap and easy way to reach potential voters and donors, without all the rules meant to keep traditional paid broadcast advertising a bit honest. Both sides are working the texting pipeline aggressively. In the last days of the campaign, the pinging of phones can be relentless.
“All day, every day,” Robyn Beyah said of the torrent as she stood in line to get into a Kamala Harris rally outside Atlanta last week. “They have my number. We’re practically besties.”
Beyah is cool with that. She considers the text bombing “harmless” because it’s for a candidate she believes in. She even invites the Harris campaign to “harass me with text messages.” Not all voters are so charitable.
“To be honest with you, at this point, I’ve tuned it out of my brain,” said Ebenezer Eyasu of Stone Mountain, Georgia, standing in the same Harris rally line. He said the dozen or so texts he gets each day have become “background noise.”
Sarah Wiggins, a 26-year-old graphic designer from Kennesaw, Georgia, who supports Harris, prefers face to face persuasion. “I feel like it’s all about people around you,” she said. “Word of mouth is underrated.” As for the texts, “I just delete, to be honest. I don’t want to read it.”
Many Trump supporters also get pestered. Several at his rally in Tempe, Arizona, last week professed low-grade aggravation about that.
“They’re more of an annoyance than anything else,” said Morse Lawrence, 57, a physician assistant from Mesa, Arizona. “I get bombarded by text messages outside of political things as well. People wanting to buy my house, people wanting to sell me insurance, it’s all of it.”
He figures it’s an effective marketing strategy for campaigns even if the great majority of recipients don’t bite. “You go fishing and you catch two fish, you’ve got a meal for the day.”
Jennifer Warnke, 57, of St. John’s, Arizona, also at the Trump rally, expressed mixed feelings about what’s happening on her phone.
“They’re at least reaching out, because for years nobody ever called me,” she said.
