Sen. Marco Rubio has been sending unusual campaign fundraising texts to Texans. Rubio wants you to know how he feels about you, and you need only to click a link to find out.
“God bless you … I know you don’t hear that enough,” the personalized text begins. Then, the senator gets to the point. “Marco Rubio here & I need you to know how I feel about you.”
The message concludes with a link to a page on WinRed, a Republican fundraising apparatus. The website’s disclaimer states: “Paid for by WinRed. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee. WinRed.com.”
The website also says, “Your contribution will benefit Rubio Victory Committee.”
The fine print at the bottom of the page explains, “Rubio Victory Committee … is a joint fundraising committee composed of” Marco Rubio for Senate, the Republican Party of Florida, Reclaim America PAC, and the National Republican Senate Committee, among others.
Later, the message identifies “ultra-wealthy liberals” like “George Soros, Nancy Pelosi, Michael Bloomberg, and Sam Bankman-Fried” and asks for donations to help defeat their political agenda. Although Rubio’s words only explicitly ask for $25, when you scroll down to select an amount, the $50 icon is gray and pulses as you consider the options.
He closes his message with another “God bless you.” However, he never explicitly states how he feels about you, as the text promised he would.
The phone number used to send the message was from Northern California. It is unknown why this phone number was used, why Rubio is fundraising in Texas, or why he is casting such a broad fundraising net when he is not up for re-election until 2028. Rubio was re-elected to a third term in 2022 in a landslide against his opponent, Val Demings.
