50,000 Join Bernie Sanders’ SMS Campaign

Bernie Sanders - Text BERNIE to 8263

It’s no surprise that with a recent poll finding that one in five voters (19%) said the best way to reach them was with a text message, that presidential candidates for the 2016 election are using text messaging. Not to be left behind, Bernie Sanders is using text messaging to communicate to his supporters. Just how fast is Bernie Sanders’ SMS campaign growing?


Text “WORK” to 82623

According to his digital organizing director, Claire Sandberg, within hours of their live-streamed house party event, which drew more than 100,000 supporters nationwide, Bernie Sanders had received nearly 50,000 mobile phone numbers from supporters texting “WORK” to the short code 82623. That’s almost a 50% opt-in rate!

Based on his SMS marketing success with the live streaming house party event, Bernie Sanders’ SMS short code 82623 has made appearances at almost all of his events. The image below is a scoreboard display at a Bernie Sanders rally in Portland Oregon, which encouraged attendees to text “BERNIE” to 82623. The image at the top of this post is also from the Portland Rally.

Bernie for President - Text BERNIE to 82623


Bernie Sander’s SMS short code 82623 is also showing up online. Below is an ad to join the political revolution by texting “BERNIE” to 82623 to sign up for important mobile alerts from the campaign.

Bernie Sanders - Text BERNIE to 82623


And of course Bernie Sanders is using Twitter to promote his SMS campaign, as you can see in the tweet below, using the hashtag #TeamBernie

Bernie Sanders - Twitter - Text BERNIE to 82623


How It Works

So what happens when you text BERNIE to 82623? I thought you’d never ask. Check out the screenshot below of the opt-in process for Bernie Sander’s SMS campaign. It’s interesting to note that Bernie Sanders is collecting his supporters’ zip codes after opting into the SMS campaign. Why is this important for a political campaign? Besides national events like debates, the majority of presidential campaigning is done state by state, and city by city. By collecting subscribers’ zip codes during the opt-in process, Bernie’s campaign team will be able to mobilize supporters based on their location. For example, more than 27,000 Bernie Sanders’ supporters turned out last week in Los Angeles for a campaign appearance, after supporters in the area received a text message promoting the event.

Bernie Sanders Text Message


MMS Marketing Use

What surprised us most was Bernie Sanders’ use of MMS, which we’ve never seen a presidential candidate up till now use. MMS allows the Bernie Sanders’ campaign to send both static images, videos, and our favorite, animated GIFs. The below MMS was sent by the Bernie Sanders’ campaign to promote his appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres show on NBC. How cool is that?

Bernie Sanders MMS Message

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