COMPLIANCE
Political Email and SMS Compliance for Texas Campaigns
Your campaign answers to several sets of rules at once, and one careless send can cost you trust with voters, carriers and inbox providers. Every email, text and call we run goes through the same checks first, alongside your treasurer or counsel.
Galleria 713-703-3030 | Kingwood 281-852-8253
WE ACTUALLY WANT TO WIN
What rules does a political campaign have to follow for email and texts?
A complaint or a blocked number in the last week can cost a close race. We take compliance seriously because we are invested in the outcome, not just the paperwork. Every send in our voter outreach services goes through the checks on this page.
Campaign messaging sits under four separate sets of rules. They come from different places, and they do not cover for each other. Passing one check does not mean you passed the others. Nothing here is legal advice. Ask your treasurer or legal counsel to confirm how each rule fits your race, whether you are running in Fort Bend County or statewide.
The fourth set is Texas law. The Texas Election Code requires a disclosure on political advertising that contains express advocacy, and it makes commercial use of registrar voter data a Class A misdemeanor. Both shape how we write messages and how we handle lists.
OPT-OUTS
How should a campaign handle unsubscribes and STOP replies?
Treat every stop request as final, no matter where it arrives. We keep one shared opt-out and suppression list across email, text and calls, and every send checks it first. Voters do not think in channels. Someone who replied STOP to a text and then gets a robocall from the same campaign feels ignored. A single list prevents that and keeps complaints down with carriers and inbox providers.
The rules point the same way. Under FCC rules, people can opt out of calls and texts in any reasonable way, from replying STOP to simply telling a volunteer. For email, every message carries a clear unsubscribe, including the one-click option major inbox providers expect. When a voter opts out, we record the date, the channel and how they asked, and that record protects your campaign if a question ever comes up.
Opt-outs also affect delivery. High complaint rates hurt inbox placement, and anyone can forward an unwanted text to 7726 to report it. The mechanics of sending at scale are on our bulk email for political campaigns page.
FROM THE VOTER'S SIDE
How do voters stop political texts, calls and email?
A lot of people who land on this page are not running a campaign. They want the messages to stop. Here is the honest answer, and it is also the reason campaigns should make stopping easy.
- Texts. Reply STOP. A properly run campaign removes you from that program. If a text looks like spam, forward it to 7726 to report it to your carrier.
- Email. Use the unsubscribe link in the footer. Legitimate campaign email has one, and major inbox providers expect a one-click option.
- Recorded calls. The message has to say who is calling and give a phone number. Ask that campaign not to call you again, and they have to honor it. The Do Not Call Registry does not cover political calls.
- Postal mail. Political mail is not covered by these rules. Contacting the campaign or committee named on the mailer is the most direct way to ask to be removed.
From the campaign side, every one of those requests is a voter telling you something. Honoring it quickly costs far less than the complaint that follows if you do not.
DISCLOSURES
What disclosures do campaign emails, texts and calls need?
Every channel has a spot where your campaign identifies itself. We write those spots into templates, so no one has to remember them on a busy night before early voting.
- Email footers carry an accurate sender name, a valid physical postal address and a clear unsubscribe link, and subject lines tell the truth. If a message qualifies as political advertising under Texas Election Code Sec. 255.001, the footer labels it that way and names who paid for it, the authorizing committee or the candidate. Our political email marketing team writes within those limits from the first draft.
- Texts and landing pages. Messages identify your campaign, give a way to opt out and, where Texas law calls for it, carry a short disclosure line. Links go to a landing page on your campaign website that repeats the disclosure and explains your texting terms. See political text messaging for how texts are planned.
- Call scripts. Every prerecorded message opens by naming who is calling and gives a phone number during or after the message. AI-generated voices are treated as artificial voices under the TCPA, so a synthetic voice gets no special pass. Our political robocall services page shows how we script calls.
- Spanish versions carry the same sender identification, opt-out language and disclosure as the English one. A missing disclosure in Spanish is still a missing disclosure.
Those landing pages and disclosure templates live on your campaign website, which our team builds and maintains so the page and the message always match.
THE CASE FOR VERTICAL WEB ON CAMPAIGN COMPLIANCE
Discipline on every send
RECORD KEEPING
What records should a campaign keep for texting and email compliance?
Hiring a vendor does not move responsibility off your committee. CAN-SPAM makes that point for commercial email: you stay responsible when you hire someone to send. We apply the same principle to every campaign send, which is why we keep these records for you and share them with your treasurer or counsel on request.
PRE-SEND CHECKLIST
What should you check before every campaign email, text or call?
This is the checklist we run before anything leaves our hands. It is different from the one-time setup covered in our political 10DLC guide and our Campaign Verify registration help. This list applies to every single send.
- Suppression checked against the shared opt-out list and recent bounces, again right before launch.
- Disclosure in place on every message that counts as political advertising, English and Spanish checked separately.
- Sender identified. Accurate from names and subject lines, texts that name the campaign, calls that state who is calling and give a number.
- Consent matches the method. Autodialed texts and prerecorded calls to mobiles go only to people who gave prior consent.
- Opt-out works. Unsubscribe links, STOP replies and call opt-outs tested, with one-click unsubscribe live and HELP replies naming the campaign.
- Authentication and registration current. SPF, DKIM and DMARC on email, registered texting numbers with a Campaign Verify token, and voter data used for political purposes only.
Peer to peer, 10DLC and short codes
Which texting platform and number type should a political SMS campaign use?
A political SMS campaign can send in 3 main ways, and the compliance rules follow the method. Peer-to-peer texting means a volunteer or staff member sends each message by hand from a platform, one recipient at a time. Broadcast texting sends one message to a whole list at once. Short codes are 5 or 6 digit numbers built for high volume sending.
Peer-to-peer texting is the most common choice for campaigns because a person starts each conversation, which is treated differently under the TCPA than an autodialed message. It still needs a clean list, a clear opt-out and carrier registration. Broadcast texting to mobile phones generally needs prior consent, so it fits supporters who signed up on your website or at an event. Short codes take longer to approve and cost more, so they suit large organizations and statewide races with steady volume.
Whatever the method, carrier registration comes first. Messages from a standard 10 digit number run through 10DLC registration with The Campaign Registry, and the political use case starts with a Campaign Verify token. Skip it and carriers filter or block your messages, often with no warning. Our 10DLC compliance and Campaign Verify pages walk through each step. Federal races also answer to FEC disclaimer rules, so ask your treasurer or counsel how they apply to your texts and email.
Compliance that wins votes
Political messaging strategy for the election: GOTV, turnout reminders, RSVPs and fundraising
Compliance is not the goal. Winning the election is. The rules shape how you send, and a disciplined program actually performs better, because voters trust it and carriers deliver it.
Plan each message around one action. Early in the race, texts and email invite supporters to an event and ask them to RSVP, or ask for a small donation tied to a specific need. Mid-race, messages recruit volunteers and share where the candidate stands on a local issue. In the final stretch, GOTV messages carry voting reminders, polling locations, early voting hours and a simple ask to vote. Turnout programs work best when the reminder is short, specific and arrives at the right hour, not late at night.
Segmentation keeps messages relevant. Split your audience by precinct, by past participation, by language and by how each subscriber signed up. A donor gets a different message than a first-time volunteer, and a Spanish-speaking household gets the full message in Spanish with the same disclosure. Relevant messages get more replies and fewer opt-outs, and that protects deliverability for the next send.
Fundraising messages carry extra weight. Donation links should go to a secure page on your campaign website that shows the required disclosure and collects the donor information your treasurer needs for reporting. See our political text messaging page for how we plan a full texting program.
Measuring it
How do you measure the success of a political SMS and email campaign?
Start with delivery. For texts, track how many messages were delivered and how many failed or were filtered by carriers. For email, track inbox placement, bounces and spam complaints. A sudden drop in delivery is often the first sign of a compliance or reputation problem.
Then measure action. Replies and conversations, RSVPs, volunteer signups, donations and clicks to your polling place page tell you whether a message worked. Opt-out rate matters too. A rising opt-out rate on one segment means the message, the timing or the list needs work.
Email deliverability also depends on authentication. DMARC, along with SPF and DKIM, tells inbox providers that mail claiming to come from your campaign domain really does. Major inbox providers now expect it from bulk senders, and without it your email is more likely to land in spam or be spoofed by someone else. Our bulk email for campaigns team sets it up before the first send.
Good reporting ties it together. Every send should leave a record of who received it, what it said, what disclosure it carried and what happened next. That record helps you improve the next message, and it protects the organization if anyone ever asks questions about your outreach.
STRAIGHT ANSWERS
Campaign compliance questions
CAN-SPAM covers email whose primary purpose is commercial advertising or promotion, so purely political messages are generally outside that scope. Inbox providers still apply their own standards, so we follow CAN-SPAM practices on every send: accurate headers, truthful subject lines, a real postal address and an obvious way to opt out.
Under FCC rules, people can opt out of calls and texts in any reasonable way, from replying STOP to simply telling a volunteer, and the campaign has to honor it. Autodialed texts to mobile phones also need prior consent. This is general information, not legal advice.
Political calls fall outside the National Do Not Call Registry, which is aimed at telemarketing sales calls. FCC consent rules still apply to prerecorded and autodialed calls, recorded messages must identify the caller and give a phone number, and any voter who asks you to stop has to be honored.
Assume your committee is. For commercial email, CAN-SPAM says plainly that you stay responsible when you hire someone to send. Pick a partner who keeps records, shows you templates before launch and answers questions directly.
Treat them with the same care. We write Spanish emails, texts and call scripts with the same sender identification, opt-out language and disclosure line as the English versions, and your treasurer or counsel should review both.
Forwarding a text to 7726 reports it as unwanted, which signals a problem to carriers and can affect how your traffic is treated. Text people who expect to hear from you, identify your campaign, make stopping easy and honor every request.
Voter data gets political use only. Texas Election Code Sec. 18.009 treats commercial use of registrar voter information as a Class A misdemeanor. We keep campaign lists away from any business use and never share them with another campaign.
No. It explains how we run campaign messaging and which rules we plan around. Rules change, so check each requirement with your treasurer or legal counsel. We are glad to work directly with them and share our templates and records.
Their number goes on the shared suppression list right away, and no further texts, calls or email go to them from that campaign. We log the date, the channel and how they asked.
DMARC is an email authentication record that, with SPF and DKIM, proves your campaign’s email really comes from your domain. Without it, more of your email lands in spam and others can spoof your domain.
Texts tend to be read quickly, and a short, personal message with one clear ask, such as an RSVP or a voting reminder, is easy to act on. Compliance keeps those messages trusted and delivered.
Send with confidence, not guesswork
Let us carry the checklists so your team can carry the message. We will review your current email, texting and call setup and show you where the gaps are.
Galleria 713-703-3030 | Kingwood 281-852-8253 | info@verticalweb.com