Political Text Messaging in Local and Municipal Elections

Political text messaging gives city, county, and other local campaigns a fast way to communicate directly with voters during elections where every contact can matter.

Local campaigns often operate with smaller budgets, smaller voter universes, and shorter timelines than statewide or national races. However, they still need to introduce candidates, explain local issues, recruit volunteers, remind supporters to vote, and respond quickly as Election Day approaches.

SMS and peer-to-peer (P2P) texting can support those goals by placing concise campaign messages directly on voters’ mobile phones. In addition, campaigns can use text messages to direct voters to websites, event information, donation pages, early-voting information, and other campaign resources.

The examples below focus on documented uses of political texting rather than claiming that texting alone caused an election victory.

Why Can Political Text Messaging Work Well in Local Elections?

City council, county commission, school board, mayoral, sheriff, and other local elections often depend on reaching a relatively defined group of voters.

That creates an opportunity for targeted voter communication.

Political text messaging can help a local campaign:

• Introduce the candidate: Send voters a short message about the candidate and campaign.
• Reinforce important issues: Direct voters to additional information about local priorities.
• Promote early voting: Remind supporters when and where voting begins.
• Support GOTV efforts: Send timely Election Day reminders to appropriate voter audiences.
• Recruit volunteers: Invite supporters to canvass, phone bank, attend events, or help distribute campaign materials.
• Encourage fundraising: Provide supporters with a direct link to an online contribution page.
• Promote campaign events: Share information about rallies, meet-and-greets, town halls, and community appearances.

Texting does not need to replace direct mail, door knocking, digital advertising, social media, or telephone outreach. Instead, it can become another part of a coordinated local voter-contact program.

What Does Research Say About Political Text Messaging?

Public research provides a useful reason for local campaigns to consider texting while also showing why campaigns should avoid making exaggerated promises about its effect.

In its 2020 Political Texting Report, Tech for Campaigns analyzed 36 texting programs conducted across 27 states. Those programs sent more than 1.4 million peer-to-peer text messages.

The organization reported that voters who received its texts turned out at a rate 0.7 percentage points higher than comparable untexted voters in the same districts.

Importantly, Tech for Campaigns described its findings as correlational rather than causal. In other words, the research does not prove that receiving a text automatically caused someone to vote.

The research did, however, suggest that well-targeted texting can become a useful component of voter outreach. The report also found that messages containing helpful voting information performed particularly well with some voter groups.

You can review the Tech for Campaigns Political Texting Report for additional details about its methodology and findings.

Documented Example: Erik Bottcher for New York City Council

One documented municipal example comes from Erik Bottcher’s successful 2021 campaign for New York City Council District 3.

Impactive, a political organizing and texting platform, identifies the Bottcher campaign as one of its peer-to-peer texting users. The campaign manager explained that the campaign wanted a system that could combine P2P texting with relational messaging while remaining affordable for a smaller campaign.

Bottcher subsequently won the Democratic primary for District 3 and went on to win the November 2021 general election.

Again, it would be inaccurate to claim that texting caused the victory. Candidate strength, endorsements, fundraising, field activity, district demographics, other advertising, and many additional factors influence an election.

However, this campaign provides a documented example of a successful city council operation incorporating peer-to-peer texting into its voter-contact strategy.

Campaigns interested in this type of outreach can learn more about our political text messaging and robo call services.

Documented Example: A Greenwood Village City Council Campaign

A more recent local example comes from Greenwood Village, Colorado.

Katrin Mezger was elected to the Greenwood Village City Council in November 2025. In a published discussion of political texting, Mezger credited her campaign’s texting effort with reaching residents who had not previously been reached through direct mail.

She also reported that voter turnout increased in her district and described the texting program as particularly valuable to her campaign.

This example highlights an important potential advantage for local candidates: text messaging can create another point of contact with residents who may overlook, discard, or never notice other campaign communications.

However, an individual candidate’s experience should not be treated as a guarantee that another campaign will achieve the same result.

How Can P2P Texting Create More Personal Voter Contact?

Peer-to-peer texting can give local campaigns an opportunity to create conversations rather than simply broadcast announcements.

Depending on the campaign and platform, an operator or volunteer can send messages and respond when voters reply.

That interaction may allow campaign representatives to:

• Answer basic questions about the candidate
• Provide voting information
• Share campaign website links
• Recruit volunteers
• Identify interested supporters
• Respond to questions about events
• Direct voters to additional issue information

For a local race, those conversations can be especially valuable because voters may have questions about neighborhood concerns, development, taxes, public safety, schools, roads, or other highly local issues.

A campaign should still keep messages concise and respectful. More messages do not automatically produce better results.

Use Political Text Messaging Throughout the Campaign

Text messaging can support several stages of a local election rather than appearing only during the final GOTV push.

Early Campaign Outreach

At the beginning of a campaign, texts can introduce the candidate and provide a link to the campaign website.

Volunteer and Supporter Development

Later, campaigns may use appropriate messaging to recruit volunteers, promote events, or invite supporters to become more involved.

Early Voting

As voting begins, campaigns can send timely reminders about early-voting periods and other useful election information.

Election Day GOTV

Finally, GOTV messages can remind appropriate supporters that Election Day has arrived and encourage them to participate before polls close.

This progression can help a campaign build familiarity before asking voters to take action.

Can Political Texting Be Combined With Robo Calls?

Yes. Different voters can be reachable through different communication channels.

Political SMS and P2P texting provide mobile outreach. Meanwhile, recorded voice messages and political robo calls may provide another way to reach appropriate telephone audiences.

A local campaign may therefore choose a combination of:

• SMS messaging
• Peer-to-peer texting
• MMS messaging
• Political robo calls
• Recorded voice broadcasting
• Direct mail
• Digital advertising

The right combination depends on the election, audience, available voter data, budget, timing, and campaign objectives.

Political Text Messaging Compliance Matters

Campaigns should also consider federal requirements, carrier policies, registration requirements, consent rules, sender identification, and opt-out procedures before launching a texting program.

The rules can differ depending on the technology used and how the campaign obtained permission or voter contact information.

For current federal guidance, campaigns can review the FCC Political Campaign Robocalls and Robotexts Rules.

Campaigns should also obtain qualified legal advice when they need guidance concerning the requirements that apply to their specific outreach program.

Build a Political Text Messaging Plan for Your Local Election

A local campaign does not need a presidential-sized advertising budget to communicate strategically with voters.

Political text messaging can give city and county campaigns a scalable way to share information, recruit supporters, reinforce important messages, and support voter turnout efforts.

Results will always depend on the candidate, audience, targeting, message, timing, campaign organization, and many other factors. Nevertheless, documented campaign experience and voter-contact research show why texting has become a serious tool for local political outreach.

Tell us about your city, county, municipal, school board, or other local election. Include the election date, estimated audience size, geographic area, and communication goals.

GOTVText.com can then help determine which political SMS, P2P texting, robo call, or voice-broadcasting services fit the project.