WASHINGTON – Americans are in the final stretch of the 2026 midterm elections, but lots of voters were done with this campaign season months ago. The barrage of political texts, calls, mailers, and digital and TV ads that people have been navigating this year has been so unbearable that some are reconsidering ever donating to a campaign again.
“I must get at least 10-20 texts A DAY from literally every single candidate in the country, every single Dem organization or anything to do with the Dems and midterms,” fumed Anne, a Colorado voter. “It makes me never want to make a contribution again. I should have known this would happen.”
“I am an Ohio Blue voter, and the amount of text messages I receive on the daily from the Sherrod Brown and Amy Acton PACS are INSANE!!” said Stacy, who shared images of five text messages she’d gotten that day.
“I always report and delete. 2 minutes later I get almost the exact text but from a different number,” she said. “I refuse to donate to D’s right now because my money does not make a difference in this fight when dark money is spent by the 100’s of millions.”
Anne and Stacy are among the dozens of voters who responded to HuffPost’s recent call-out to readers asking whether they’re burned out from getting too many unwanted campaign messages. We asked, and you certainly delivered!
People from all over the country sent in photos of political mailers piled up on kitchen tables, already doomed for the recycling bin, and screenshots of multiple unsolicited text messages in a row. Most were comfortable only giving their first names.
Many people said they’re used to being targeted with ads during campaign seasons, but this year has felt next-level. More than one person described it as “harassment.”
In her email with the subject line “Relentless,” Anne pinpointed what she thinks triggered the deluge of text messages she’s been getting: a small, one-time donation to a Democratic super PAC, possibly in support of Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico. Ever since then, her phone has been blowing up with crap.
“I can’t wait until this is over!!” she said in another email Thursday, sharing a screenshot of another text message she’d just gotten – this time from the campaign of U.S. Senate nominee Dan Osborn in Nebraska, saying he “hates to beg” for money, but he’ll do it anyway.
“I feel like they think we are all idiots,” she grumbled.
Nearly everyone said they’ve been overwhelmed by the mix of political mailers, texts, phone calls and TV ads coming at them, but that it’s the unsolicited text messages that have gotten the most out of control.
Chris, a voter in California, shared a screenshot of eight spammy campaign texts in a row he’d gotten over the course of a few hours.
The most recent text was about Republicans in Nebraska. Six minutes earlier, he’d received a vague message claiming to be a follow-up request for money. In the two hours before that, he’d received unsolicited texts about a supposed “resignation notice” for Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a new U.S. passport design denounced as “SO UGLY,” and a message denouncing attack ads against Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed.
“My text app has become almost totally useless,” Chris lamented. “I am at the point that I may get a new phone line and then NEVER donate or do anything else that would link that new account to past political activities.”
Chris, a California voter
Eric K. of Massachusetts said he gets 10 to 15 unsolicited text messages a day, and most are about races in other states, with candidates he’s never heard of. He used to regularly donate to Democratic fundraising platforms like Act Blue, but says he stopped this year “because my contact information has been abused SO badly.”
“I have refrained from giving one cent to a single Dem (who I absolutely support and will vote straight ticket because the Republicans are SO bad.),” Eric said. “Even in this important cycle.”
He’s struggled with the prospect of Democratic candidates losing due to lack of funds, but decided it’s more important not to be party to a system of never-ending fundraising requests: “It is presumptuous, audacious and rude. The celebrity appeals are pathetic.”
Then there are the overly dramatic and alarmist text messages that people are getting, like the MAGA messages Kim in California received. “Voice trembling & knees weak, Clarence Thomas dropped the mask & got personal,” reads one particularly weird one, with a link to donate. Another fundraising request reads, “Kimberly, I wrote you a private note. I’m shaken and I need you.”
“No idea how I got on their list,” said Kim, “but it makes me wonder if these are why Republicans are so insane lately.”
“I feel like I’m being penalized by the campaigns that I’ve supported.”
– Barbera Speros of Tampa, Florida
Several readers said they’re now torn about giving money to any candidates because they know they’ll be rewarded with more bonkers texts and calls.
“I’m personally getting an enormous amount of election texts and emails every hour. This is now beyond ridiculous,” said Barbera Speros of Tampa, Florida. “I feel like I’m being penalized by the campaigns that I’ve supported.”
Jeff, a Georgia voter, said he made one donation to Florida Democratic Senate nominee Angie Nixon in late September and has been drowning in text messages ever since. He gave up deleting them and is now saving them up to see how many gets before the election. His current count from the last two weeks? 438.
“I thought it was bad in 2024,” Jeff said, “but this is next level.”
Jeff, a frustrated Georgia voter
An obvious reason for the surge in the frequency of political messaging is that the amount of money in this election cycle has also surged. More than $10 billion has already been spent on ads in the 2026 election cycle, a record high on track to surpass spending in the 2022 midterms and in the 2024 presidential cycle.
People aren’t just imagining they’re getting more calls and texts, either. A September national survey by telecommunications company NumberBarn found that, on average, Americans reported getting 13 political texts and phone calls a week, with most describing the level of messages as more excessive than past elections. It didn’t specify which states people were in.
The survey, which screened 1,000 adults evenly divided by gender, also found that 72% of respondents who replied STOP to a political text message said they kept getting political messages afterward. Nearly half said that getting too many calls or texts from a campaign made them view that candidate less favorably.
The idea that sending too many political messages could backfire has come up with people HuffPost has talked to, whether on reporting trips or for this story.
“One answer would be whoever shows me the last negative ad, then I’ll vote for the other one,” Diana, an irritated GOP voter in Alaska, told HuffPost last month when asked who they plan to support in the state’s Senate race. “I mean, we got two more months of this?”
“It makes me wonder if it’s a ploy to annoy Democrats so much they’ll not vote for the spamming candidates,” one Texas woman offered on social media, saying she can’t concentrate at work because her phone keeps buzzing from all the Democratic political texts she gets.
“I can’t get them to stop!”
An Ohio voter overwhelmed with campaign mail
At a certain point, the intensity of all these competing campaign messages just becomes absurd.
Jenny in Austin, Texas, said she was already getting at least six unsolicited political text messages a day when she started getting the exact same texts she was already getting, again — this time addressed to someone named Kathi.
Ann, a Democrat in Anchorage, said she’s gotten spammy political calls from the same woman three times, and each time, she’s told the woman they’ve already talked. But the woman ends up calling back again.
Hale, a voter in Washington’s 3rd Congressional District, said they’ve been getting the same campaign mailer at their house every day for weeks in support of Republican House nominee John Braun. Everyone in Hale’s own house is a Democrat. “They immediately go into my recycling bin,” wrote Hale. “No one in my family will vote for a Republican.”
For some in Colorado, where every registered voter gets a ballot in the mail, it makes no sense why they’re getting campaign mailers for weeks on end after they’ve already voted.
“I usually return mine within a day or two of receipt,” David, a Colorado voter, said of sending in his ballot. “Only then do the campaign flyers start appearing in my mailbox, which I find simultaneously funny and frustrating.”
What voters shared the most about this election cycle, though, was their deep frustration with how money has overtaken politics. Some yearned for the days when political candidates focused on selling their policy ideas to the American public instead of chasing multimillionaire donors and resorting to AI slop to land ugly attacks on their opponents.
“It’s all about the money instead of policies,” Jennifer, an Ohio voter, said in an email. “I’m just tired of the negativity and the lies and the corruption.”
She signed off, “Sincerely, An Exhausted American.”