How to stop political text messages

To stop political texts: reply STOP to each sender (the rules require them to honor it), block and report the number, turn on screening for unknown senders on your phone, switch on your carrier's free spam protection, and forward anything unwanted to 7726. If a text was autodialed to your cell phone without your consent, or your STOP was ignored, file a complaint with the FCC. No single step ends every political text, because every campaign, party committee and PAC runs its own list. STOP ends one sender; the rest reduce the volume. Here is each step, what it does, and what it cannot do.

Step 1: Reply STOP, and know what it does

Replying STOP revokes your consent with the committee that sent the text, and the FCC says the sender must honor it: the called party can revoke consent at any time and in any reasonable manner, such as replying "stop" to a text. Carrier registration rules go further: every registered political texting program has to carry an opt-out instruction and suppress a number that uses it, across the whole program, not just the number you replied to. A campaign that follows the rules stops texting you within minutes and keeps you off its list into the next cycle. Source: FCC, Political Campaign Robocalls and Robotexts Rules (opens in a new tab), reviewed March 5, 2025.

What STOP cannot do is reach anyone else. Each campaign, each party committee and each PAC holds its own list, with your number on it for its own reasons, and your STOP to one of them is invisible to the others. During a general election a voter in a contested district can be on a dozen lists. The honest expectation: STOP stops that sender for good, and the next unfamiliar number is a different sender, who also has to honor STOP.

Step 2: Block the number and report it as junk

Blocking stops that number; reporting tells your phone and your carrier about it. On iPhone, a message from a number not in your contacts carries a Report Junk link, and any conversation lets you block the contact. On Android, Google says that when you report a conversation as spam in Google Messages you also block the sender and move the message to your Spam and blocked folder, and that reporting is optional: you can block a number without reporting it. Source: Google Messages Help, Report spam in Google Messages (opens in a new tab), read October 26, 2026.

The limit is the same as STOP's, from the other direction. A registered political texting program sends from many local numbers, so blocking one number does not block the program; replying STOP does. Use both: STOP for the sender, block for the number.

Step 3: Screen or filter unknown senders on your phone

iPhone (iOS 26 and later)

iOS 26 added screening for unknown senders in Messages: texts from numbers not in your contacts go to a dedicated folder, stay silenced until you accept them, and you can mark the number as known, ask for more information, or delete. That is Apple's description, from the iOS 26 announcement (Apple Newsroom, June 9, 2025, read October 26, 2026). Turn it on in the Messages settings, and political texts from numbers you do not know stop interrupting you without any of them being deleted; you can still open the folder before Election Day to check for your polling place or a mail-ballot deadline. Apple also noted that time-sensitive messages still appear normally. Source: Apple Newsroom, iOS 26 (opens in a new tab).

iPhone (iOS 18 and earlier)

Earlier versions have Filter Unknown Senders in the Messages settings, which sorts texts from numbers not in your contacts into a separate list and turns off their notifications. It is less complete than iOS 26 screening but does the same basic job.

Android (Google Messages)

Google Messages runs spam protection by default and keeps a Spam and blocked folder. A political text that the app classifies as spam lands there without a notification, and Block and report spam on any conversation sends the rest. Phones from Samsung and other makers that ship their own messaging app have an equivalent setting under spam or blocked numbers. Source: Google Messages Help (opens in a new tab), read October 26, 2026.

Step 4: Turn on your carrier's free spam tools

All three national carriers offer free spam protection, and each says so on its own page. These tools are built for scam and unwanted commercial traffic, so a lawful political text from a registered sender may pass through them; they still cut the volume around it and are worth the two minutes.

Step 5: Forward to 7726, and file with the FCC when a rule was broken

Forwarding a text to 7726 (the digits spell SPAM) reports it to your carrier, which uses the reports to identify senders; the FCC's own guide lists it as a step. It does not reply to the sender and it does not replace STOP. Source: FCC, Stop Unwanted Robocalls and Texts (opens in a new tab), read October 26, 2026.

An FCC complaint is for a rule actually broken: autodialed political texts to your cell phone without your prior consent, a STOP that was ignored, or a prerecorded call that did not identify the caller. The FCC takes informal complaints online at consumercomplaints.fcc.gov (opens in a new tab) and by phone at 1-888-225-5322. A complaint about a lawful, manually sent text from a campaign you never heard of will not go anywhere, because that text is allowed; STOP is the remedy for it.

What the rules actually say

The FCC's rules for campaigns: autodialed texts and prerecorded calls to cell phones require your prior express consent; texts sent manually do not; political robocalls to landlines are allowed without consent, capped at three per 30 days; campaign calls and texts are exempt from the Do Not Call Registry; and a request to stop must be honored however it is made. Source: FCC, Political Campaign Robocalls and Robotexts Rules (opens in a new tab), reviewed March 5, 2025, read October 26, 2026.

The "manually sent" line is the one that explains most of what lands on your phone. Peer-to-peer texting, where a person sends each message one at a time from a local number, is built on it, and it is how campaigns reach voters who never opted in. It is lawful. It is also why STOP is the lever: the rule that lets them text you once is paired with the rule that makes them stop when you say so. How that sending model works is in Peer-to-peer texting, explained.

Why a new number keeps texting after you said STOP

Because political texting is registered per committee and sent from many numbers: your STOP stops the committee you replied to, and the next text is either a different committee or the same committee's program on another of its numbers before your opt-out propagated. Every organization that texts through a platform registers its program with the carriers (the system is called 10DLC), and a registered program sends from a pool of local numbers so that no single number carries all the traffic. Your opt-out is recorded against the program, which is why a compliant sender goes quiet on every number at once. If texts from the same committee keep arriving after a STOP, the committee is not following the rules; forward them to 7726 and file with the FCC. How registration works, from the sender's side, is in the 10DLC Quick Start.

Where campaigns got your number

Most political texts trace back to the phone number on your voter registration, which many states include in the voter file that parties and campaigns can obtain, to commercial data matched to that file, or to a donation, petition or event form you filled out. The full walk-through, source by source, with what you can do about each, is in Why am I getting political texts?

If the link points to WinRed or ActBlue

Neither platform sends the texts. WinRed hosts the donation page a Republican committee links to; ActBlue hosts the page a Democratic committee links to; the text came from the committee, and STOP goes to the committee. Both platforms say so on their own help pages, and neither has a phone line that stops texts, which is what a lot of people search for. How to identify the committee from the page and what each platform does control is in How to stop WinRed and ActBlue texts.

Political calls, briefly

Prerecorded political calls to a landline are allowed without consent, limited to three in 30 days; to a cell phone they need your consent; and every prerecorded message must name the caller and give a number. Ask to be removed on the call and it has to be honored. The rules, what the calls cost to send, and how campaigns use them are in Political robocalls and phone banking.

What a campaign that follows the rules looks like from your side

The text names the committee. It ends with how to stop. It arrives between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. in your time zone. A reply of STOP gets a one-line confirmation and then silence, on every number that committee uses. That is not a courtesy; it is the carrier registration standard and the FCC rule, and it is what the programs run on FullPAC's texting platform are built to do. If you work on a campaign and want to know what that takes, the rules are laid out in Political texting compliance. If you are a voter, you now have everything you need: STOP, block, screen, carrier tools, 7726, and the FCC for anything that crossed the line.

Questions people ask

Does replying STOP to political texts actually work? Yes, for the sender you reply to. The FCC says the called party can revoke consent at any time in any reasonable manner, such as replying STOP, and the caller must honor it. Carrier registration rules require campaigns to suppress a number that opts out. What STOP cannot do is reach a different committee that has your number from its own list, which is why a new sender can appear the next day.

Why do I keep getting political texts after I replied STOP? Three reasons, in order of how common they are. A different committee is texting you: each campaign, party committee and PAC runs its own list and its own opt-outs. The same committee is sending from a different number: a registered texting program uses many local numbers, and your STOP applies to the program, not the number, but a reply that went to a number that is no longer active may not have reached it. Or the sender is not following the rules, in which case forward the text to 7726 and file with the FCC.

Are political texts legal without my permission? Some are. Under the FCC's rules, political text messages sent to a cell phone with an autodialer require your prior express consent, and messages sent manually, by a person pressing send on each one, can be sent without it. Most of the texts people get from campaigns they never signed up with are sent that way, which is lawful. The sender still has to honor STOP.

Does the Do Not Call Registry stop political texts? No. The FCC states that campaign calls and texts are exempt from the National Do Not Call Registry requirements. The registry is for telemarketing. The tools that do work are STOP, blocking and filtering, your carrier's spam protection, 7726 and an FCC complaint when a rule was broken.

How do I stop political texts on an iPhone? Reply STOP to the sender, then open the message, tap the sender's name and block the contact, or use Report Junk under a message from a number not in your contacts. In iOS 26, turn on screening for unknown senders in Messages settings so texts from numbers you do not know go to a separate folder and stay silent until you accept them; on earlier versions, turn on Filter Unknown Senders. Forward the text to 7726 to report it to your carrier.

How do I stop political texts on Android? Reply STOP, then in Google Messages open the conversation, tap the menu and choose Block and report spam. Google says reporting a conversation as spam also blocks the sender and moves the message to your Spam and blocked folder, and spam protection runs in the app by default. Forward the text to 7726 to report it to your carrier.

Will the texts stop after Election Day? Most of them. Get-out-the-vote texting ends when polls close, and the committees that sent it stop or slow down. Fundraising programs continue year-round at a lower rate, which is why STOP matters more than waiting: the committee you tell to stop stays stopped into the next cycle.

Where did they get my number? Usually from the state voter file, where the phone number you wrote on your registration form is a field that parties and campaigns can obtain in many states; from commercial data matched to that file; or from a donation, petition or event form you filled out. The companion post on why you are getting political texts walks through each source and how to get removed from it.