“Boris, Florida is in trouble,” warned one text message seeking campaign donations — and promising 900 percent matching funds — for Senator Marco Rubio of Florida.
“You have until midnight, Boris,” insisted another campaign text, urging voters to fill out a survey, which came with a photo of former President Donald J. Trump pointing an outstretched forefinger like Uncle Sam.
“It’s Mike Pompeo,” said a third message, which appeared to be from the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency. “I’m not asking for $, Boris. I’m asking you to endorse these GOP veterans running to save America.”
These messages promoting Republicans, addressed to “Boris,” were among a flood of more than 150 unsolicited texts sent during one month this fall to Lorraine Barba, a Democrat in Wilmette, Ill.
Ms. Barba, whose phone number had been briefly commandeered by a man named Boris, found the unwanted messages on her iPhone intrusive. She repeatedly tried to opt out of by typing “STOP” — to no avail.
“My phone was constantly pinging,” Ms. Barba said, adding that she was troubled “by the relentlessness of it.”
She is hardly alone. In October, people in the United States received an estimated 1.29 billion political text messages — about twice as many as in April — according to RoboKiller, an app that blocks Robocalls and spam texts. Many voters have complaints about it.
In response to recent questions from The New York Times, more than 940 readers…
