Texting Rules Guide

Political 10DLC: A Plain-English Guide for Texas Campaigns

Your campaign texts only reach voters if the carriers trust your number. This guide explains how political 10DLC registration works, how it connects to Campaign Verify and what to fix before your first send. When you would rather hand off the paperwork, our done-for-you Campaign Verify service takes it from there.

Galleria 713-703-3030 | Kingwood 281-852-8253

Years of Experience

0 +

Businesses We've Helped

0 +

Websites Designed, SEO Optimized and Maintained

0 +

4.9

Google Rating, Certified Google Partner

First Place triple honors, Best of West Houston 2025. More than $1M in annual PPC managed. Every service delivered in-house, and our original 1998 client is still with us.

The Basics

How does A2P 10DLC affect campaign texting?

A2P 10DLC is the carrier system for texts sent from software to people using an ordinary 10-digit phone number. If your campaign texts voters from a platform instead of a personal phone, this system applies to you.

The short version: register first, text second. Carriers treat unregistered traffic as suspect. Your messages can be filtered or blocked before a single voter sees them.

Breaking down the name

A2P stands for application to person. It means a message leaves a software platform and lands on someone’s phone. The letters 10DLC mean a 10-digit long code: the normal local-style number your supporters already know how to read.

Put together, the term covers most campaign texting. A volunteer tapping send inside a texting app is still using an application. The number on the other end is still a 10-digit long code.

Why the carriers set this up

Mobile carriers want to know who is sending before they deliver. Spam and scam texts pushed them to require every business and political sender on a standard number to identify itself. Registration gives them a name, a purpose and a sample of what you plan to send.

That review runs through The Campaign Registry, usually called TCR. Your texting platform submits the details. The carriers look them over and decide how to treat your traffic.

What it means for your race

A campaign runs on a calendar it cannot move. If your early voting reminder gets filtered, there is no second chance to send it on time. Registration is the step that keeps your texts in the lane carriers accept.

It is also the step many campaigns start too late. Treat it like your filing paperwork: get it done early, then focus on voters. Our political text messaging services page covers what happens once you are cleared to send.

Registration

How does 10DLC registration work for a political campaign?

Registration has two layers. First the carriers learn who you are. Then they learn what you plan to send. Political senders add one more piece, a Campaign Verify token, that shows carriers your committee is real.

1. Register the brand

Your brand is the legal entity doing the texting, which for most races is the candidate committee or PAC. The name, address and identifiers should match your official filings exactly. Small mismatches are a common reason registrations stall.

2. Get verified by Campaign Verify

Campaign Verify is a nonpartisan nonprofit that confirms U.S. campaigns, parties and PACs are who they say they are. After it verifies your committee, it issues a token. That token is what makes the political use case available to you.

3. Register the campaign

In 10DLC terms, a campaign is not your race. It is your messaging program: why you text, who gets the messages and what they look like. For political senders, this is where the political use case and your token come in.

4. Carrier review

Your texting platform passes the brand and campaign to The Campaign Registry, and the carriers review it. They check that your stated purpose, website and sample messages line up. Anything vague or inconsistent can send the file back.

5. Keep it matched

Approval is not the finish line. If you change what you send, switch platforms or add a committee, your registration may need an update. Keep what you registered and what you actually send telling the same story.

Sending Routes

Should your campaign text from a local number, toll-free or a short code?

Campaigns can text from three kinds of numbers. Each one has its own carrier approval path, and Campaign Verify issues tokens for all three. The right choice depends on how you plan to text, not on which one sounds bigger.

Here is the idea behind each route, kept simple. Your platform and your plans will shape the final pick.

Standard 10-digit numbers

These look like any local number, which feels familiar to voters. They are the route 10DLC registration was built for. Most peer-to-peer campaign texting runs here.

Toll-free numbers

Toll-free numbers use a toll-free prefix instead of a local area code. They go through their own carrier review rather than 10DLC. A Campaign Verify token can be part of that approval too.

Short codes

Short codes are numbers much shorter than a phone number that some groups use for alerts. They have a separate approval path of their own. Campaign Verify issues tokens for short code programs as well.

Match the route to the job

A volunteer conversation program and a one-way notice program may not belong on the same route. Tell us how you plan to text and we will explain the tradeoffs in plain terms. The goal is a route that gets approved and fits your plan.

Why Vertical Web

Why campaigns trust Vertical Web with their texting setup

A guide helps you understand the rules. A team that can do the work for you helps more. Here is why campaigns bring their texting setup to us.

Taught, not guessed

Beth Guide has taught SEO and digital marketing since 2003 for the SBA, the University of Houston SBDC, Lone Star College and HCC. Fox 26 viewers know her as a technology expert. Your campaign hires the people other marketers learn from, and we explain texting rules in plain English.

The website fix is ours too

Carrier reviewers look at your campaign website. We build and host websites, so a missing privacy policy or texting terms page gets fixed by the same team handling your registration. No vendor points at another vendor while your send date slips.

In business since 1998

Vertical Web has served clients since 1998, and our original 1998 client still works with us. Add Certified Google Partner status, a 4.9 Google rating and First Place triple honors in Best of West Houston 2025. Campaigns end; we stay reachable after Election Day.

Straight answers on what to buy

Our team runs more than a million dollars in PPC every year, so we see what one contact really costs. If a texting setup does not fit your race, we will tell you. Sometimes the right answer is email or a phone call, and we will say so.

Carrier Rules vs. the TCPA

Does 10DLC registration make your campaign texts legal?

No. Registration and the law are two separate systems. Meeting one does not satisfy the other. This is the point campaigns most often miss.

10DLC is a carrier requirement. It decides whether the phone companies will carry your traffic. The TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act) is federal law enforced by the FCC. It shapes who you may text and how.

Under FCC rules, texts sent by an autodialer to a mobile phone require the recipient’s prior consent. Texts sent manually, one at a time and person to person, can go out without prior consent. That is why so many campaigns use peer-to-peer texting, where a real person sends each message.

Opt-outs cut across both systems. A voter can say stop in any reasonable way, whether they reply STOP or simply ask you to quit texting. Your campaign has to honor it. Voters can also report unwanted texts by forwarding them to 7726, and complaints draw a closer look from carriers.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Your campaign treasurer or legal counsel should confirm how these rules apply to your program. Our email and SMS compliance for campaigns page shows how we handle the full set of rules across every channel.

Keep them straight

Texas Law

What Texas rules apply when your campaign texts voters?

Federal rules and carrier rules are not the whole picture. Two sections of the Texas Election Code touch campaign texting, whether you are running for a Montgomery County seat or a statewide office. Both are easy to handle from the start. Have your treasurer or counsel confirm the details for your race.

Political advertising disclosure (Sec. 255.001)

If a campaign message is political advertising with express advocacy, Texas requires it to say that it is political advertising. It must also name the person who paid for it, the political committee that authorized it or the candidate.

A text leaves little room, so this line needs planning. We write a disclosure into your message templates and landing pages so it is never an afterthought. Your treasurer or counsel should sign off on the exact wording.

Voter file use (Sec. 18.009)

Voter registration information from the registrar is for political use. Using registrar voter information to advertise or promote commercial products or services is a Class A misdemeanor in Texas.

That matters when a candidate also owns a business. The list you text for the campaign cannot become a sales list for the dental office or the brokerage later. See how we source and handle files on our Texas voter data and append page.

Where the rules overlap

A single text can touch all three systems at once. The carrier wants a registered sender. The FCC wants the right consent and a working opt-out. Texas wants a clear disclosure and lawful use of voter data.

Set up each piece in your templates once, and every send inherits it. That is far simpler than fixing problems one message at a time in the middle of early voting.

Before You Launch

What should you check before your campaign sends its first text?

Run through this list before you submit a registration. Many delays trace back to one of these six items, and each one is easier to fix before a reviewer sees it. If your campaign site is the weak spot, our web design team can rebuild it.

Your legal name matches your filings

The committee name on your registration should match what your committee filed with the FEC or its state or local election office. Nicknames, abbreviations and old names cause trouble. Pull the filing and copy it exactly.

A live campaign website

Reviewers check that your site is real, working and tied to the committee. It should include a privacy policy and texting terms that explain what people will receive. A placeholder page invites pushback.

Clear opt-in language

Wherever you collect phone numbers, say plainly that the person agrees to receive campaign texts. Explain what they will get, how to stop and where to get help. Clear wording protects you with carriers and with voters.

Sample messages that look real

Carriers want to see the kind of texts you will actually send. Include your campaign name and an opt-out line in each sample. Keep the samples true to what you really plan to send.

STOP and HELP handled

Your platform should process STOP replies automatically and answer HELP with who you are and how to reach you. Test both before launch. Then make sure a stopped number stays stopped on every list you use.

A disclosure line ready

If your texts count as political advertising, the Texas disclosure has to be in them. Write it once and add it to every template. Have your treasurer or counsel approve the wording before the first send.

Straight answers

Political 10DLC Compliance Guide: Frequently Asked Questions

Do our volunteer texts still need 10DLC registration if each one is sent by hand?

Yes, in most setups. Sending by hand is about the TCPA and consent. Registration is about the carriers. If your volunteers send from a texting platform using standard 10-digit numbers, the carriers expect that traffic to be registered as your brand and campaign. Manual sending helps on the consent side. It does not replace registration with The Campaign Registry.

What is a Campaign Verify token and where does it go?

A Campaign Verify token is proof that a nonpartisan nonprofit has verified your committee as a real U.S. political campaign, party or PAC. You receive it after Campaign Verify checks your filing. Your texting platform then attaches it to your registration, which makes the political use case available. Campaign Verify issues tokens for 10DLC, toll-free and short code messaging, and it also offers email domain verification.

Who is eligible for Campaign Verify?

Campaign Verify is open to 527 political organizations, meaning candidate committees, parties, PACs and similar committees, that have registered with the FEC or with a state, local or tribal election office. If your group is organized some other way, the political use case may not be open to you, and you would register through a different path. Our Campaign Verify registration service can review your situation before you apply.

Can our campaign text voters who never gave us their number?

It depends on how you send. Under FCC rules, texts sent manually, one at a time and person to person, can go out without prior consent. Texts sent by an autodialer to mobile phones require prior consent. Either way, a voter who asks you to stop must be honored. Your treasurer or legal counsel should confirm which rules fit your specific program.

What happens if our campaign skips 10DLC registration?

Carriers filter or block unregistered traffic. In practice, that means your texts may never arrive, and you may not find out right away. For a campaign, the cost is time you cannot get back, like a missed reminder during early voting. Registering first is the simplest way to avoid that risk.

Does 10DLC registration cover our Texas disclosure requirements?

No. Carrier registration is a phone industry requirement. It does not satisfy the Texas Election Code, including the political advertising disclosure in Sec. 255.001, and it has nothing to do with the reports your treasurer files. Keep these tracks separate. Your texts carry the disclosure, your treasurer handles filings and your platform handles registration. We help with the disclosure and the registration.

Is this guide legal advice?

No. This page is general information to help your campaign understand how texting rules fit together. Rules and carrier policies change, and every campaign’s facts are different. Talk with your campaign treasurer or legal counsel before you rely on any of it. For a wider look at channels, visit our voter outreach services overview or the political consulting hub.

Get your texts cleared to send

Your volunteers are ready and your calendar is set. Let us handle the registration, the website fixes and the disclosure line so nothing holds up your first send. Schedule a consultation, and we will sort out what your campaign needs before that first send.

Galleria 713-703-3030 | Kingwood 281-852-8253 | info@verticalweb.com