01.11.2024, 04:20
For millions of Americans on the radar of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump’s campaigns, the apocalypse is just a text message away. The future of the USA is at stake, some of the text messages say more or less directly. But for just seven dollars, the recipients, who are personally addressed by their first names, could save the country.
Mobile text messaging is a cost-effective and easy way to reach potential voters and donors. Both camps are now making extensive use of this opportunity in the presidential election campaign. In the last few days before the vote, the notification tones on smartphones sometimes sound incessantly.
“All day, every day,” says Robyn Beyah, who is waiting to enter a Kamala Harris rally near Atlanta, about the flood of mobile messages. «You have my number. We’re practically best friends.” That’s okay for Beyah – she thinks the messages are harmless because they promote a candidate she believes in. The Harris team can “harass her with text messages,” she says. Not everyone is so calm.
“To be honest, I’ve put it out of my brain now,” says Ebenezer Eyasu of Stone Mountain, Georgia, who plans to attend the same Harris event. The dozen or so messages he receives a day have become background noise. Sarah Wiggins, who also supports Harris, said she would prefer face-to-face conversations and word-of-mouth to texting. Delete the messages unread
Pling-Pling! In the final stretch of the election campaign, the SMS campaigns are in full swing.
Photo: Keystone
Many Trump supporters are also harassed. At a Republican rally in Tempe, Arizona, some appeared slightly annoyed. He was annoyed, says 57-year-old medical assistant Morse Lawrence from Mesa, Arizona. “I am bombarded with text messages even beyond political matters. People want to buy my house, sell me insurance, it’s all there.”
The opponents’ SMS campaigns have some similarities. Both warn urgently about the consequences of a victory for the other side. Both set arbitrary deadlines for transferring donations. Both play with the illusion that the messages came from celebrities such as Harris, Trump, George Clooney, Nancy Pelosi or Donald Trump Jr. personally.
A “Pling!” sounds on the cell phones. the next: “From Trump: I JUST LEFT MCDONALDS,” “We asked you NINE TIMES if you supported Kamala Harris… but you never filled out the poll,” or “This is Nancy Pelosi. You have to look at this.”
Despite the rip-off undertones of some of the campaign team’s messages, experts believe that money donated there or to party organizations actually goes to the intended purpose.
Harris supporter Beverly Payne is a fan of the SMS offensive despite the possible pitfalls. “I get a message every 30 minutes and I answer every single one of them,” she says. “That’s our culture now, we’re all addicts.”
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