10,000 Texts per Hour: How Campaigns Are Reaching Oklahoma Voters Whether They Like It or Not

Ahead of the June 16 primary in Oklahoma, voters experienced an unprecedented surge in political text messages, with campaigns and outside groups spending a whopping $773,808 on texting, a sharp increase from the $60,000 spent in the previous cycle. These texts, which reached up to 10,000 per hour, are largely unregulated, escaping both federal do-not-call laws and Oklahoma's telephone solicitation regulations. This surge highlights the growing reliance on digital outreach in political campaigns and raises questions about voter privacy and the potential for unwanted political messaging.