Why do political emails end up in spam folders?

Email marketer from Reddit states that many political campaigns don't follow best practices for email marketing, leading to low engagement and high spam complaints. Aggressive tactics and irrelevant content contribute to the problem.

Email marketer from Nieman Lab shares that Gmail’s spam filter disproportionately flags left-leaning political fundraising emails as spam. This is in part because users mark these messages as spam or unsubscribe.

Marketer from Email Geeks shares experience that political senders often attribute spam issues to filter bias, but the real causes are usually poor list hygiene and contact sharing. Gives an example of a 'urgent donation' email being flagged as phishing because of deceptive copy and linking to a z-list payment provider.

Marketer from Email Geeks shares that the left generally shares email lists, while the right tends to buy them from each other.

Email marketer from Stay in Touch explains that aggressive fundraising tactics, misleading subject lines, and sending to unengaged or outdated email lists contribute to political emails being flagged as spam.

Marketer from Email Geeks explains that the difference in spam rates between political parties often comes down to how they manage their email lists, using Trump's campaign as an example with varying spam rates across different sending domains.

Email marketer from Mailjet explains that low engagement rates with political emails, such as low open rates and high deletion rates, can signal to email providers that the content is unwanted, leading to placement in the spam folder.

Email marketer from StackExchange says that personalized content can help improve deliverability but also, aggressive or misleading subject lines that don't match the content of the email can trigger spam filters, causing political emails to land in spam folders.

Email marketer from Quora answers that political emails often end up in spam because political organizations may purchase lists or use aggressive tactics that result in recipients marking the messages as spam. Poor list hygiene is also a major factor.

Marketer from Email Geeks explains that email providers prioritize delivering emails that users want and blocking those they don't, regardless of the content, unless it's harmful.

Marketer from Email Geeks explains that US political senders often use co-registration and list sharing, combined with poor list management and a light regulatory environment, which creates a perfect storm for email deliverability issues.

Expert from Spamresource.com explains that using tactics that lower your sender reputation causes political emails to land in spam. This can include questionable consent practices, failing to remove inactive users, and sending a consistently high volume of unwanted emails.

Expert from Email Geeks shares an experience where using unique email addresses for donations to specific left-leaning candidates resulted in subsequent spam from different political hopefuls using the same address, leading to the original politician losing future donations.

Expert from Word to the Wise explains that many political campaigns don't implement DMARC, or implement it incorrectly. This allows spammers to easily spoof their domains, which makes it more likely legitimate campaign emails will be flagged as spam. Furthermore, campaigns often don't monitor their DMARC reports, which prevents them from identifying and addressing deliverability issues.

Documentation from Google Postmaster Tools explains that user reports, such as marking emails as spam, are a key factor in determining spam classification. High complaint rates from recipients will negatively impact deliverability.

Documentation from Spamhaus explains that using purchased or scraped email lists, which often contain spam traps, will lead to deliverability issues and placement on blocklists, ultimately causing emails to land in spam folders.

Documentation from RFC explains that failing to properly authenticate emails using SPF, DKIM, and DMARC can cause emails to be flagged as spam because email providers cannot verify the sender's legitimacy.