National Republican Congressional Committee Facing Class Action Over ‘Aggressive and Disruptive’ Text Message Campaign

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The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) faces a proposed class action after allegedly sending a Philadelphia man more than 60 unsolicited text messages without consent.

The 16-page suit alleges the texts from the NRCC, an organization dedicated to getting Republicans elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, were sent in violation of the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). 

“Defendant knowingly made (and continues to make) unsolicited text message calls without the prior express consent of the recipients,” the filing claims. “In doing so, Defendant not only invaded the personal privacy of Plaintiff and members of the alleged Classes, but also intentionally and repeated[ly] violated the TCPA.” 

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According to the complaint, the plaintiff in 2019 began receiving “a barrage” of text messages from the NRCC. The messages, which typically sought to promote Republican candidates and solicit political donations, “arrived at all hours of the day and night, including at least six text messages arriving after 9:00 p.m. and some arriving after midnight,” the lawsuit says, claiming that the texts “disturbed [the] Plaintiff’s private affairs.” 

The lawsuit claims the defendant’s text message campaign was “aggressive and disruptive” to the plaintiff, who says he received at least 62 messages from the NRCC. 

Per the case, the “impersonal and generic nature” of the texts, the frequency with which they were sent, and the lack of consent to send them are indicative of the use of an automatic telephone dialing system, which generally has the capacity to use a random or sequential number generator and store numbers from a pre-produced list. 

The lawsuit contests that the plaintiff never consented to receive “autodialed” texts from the NRCC and never asked for the group to text or solicit donations from him. 

“Simply put, Plaintiff has never provided prior express consent to Defendant to place text message calls to him,” the case states. 

Although the man “made exhaustive and numerous attempts” to get the texts to stop, he eventually opted to try to contact the NRCC through Facebook Messenger about the “harassing” messages, per the complaint. However, the plaintiff was never able to connect with a live agent for the defendant, the suit says. 

From there, the plaintiff contacted the office of the NRCC chair, U.S. Representative Tom Emmer, by calling and leaving messages with his staff, and was told that his messages would be passed along to Rep. Emmer, the filing claims. The texts nevertheless continued despite these “repeated promises,” the suit says. The plaintiff then placed additional calls to “senior staff members,” and was again told that the messages would be passed along to Rep. Emmer and his chief of staff, to no avail, the case relays. 

Finally, the plaintiff contacted iconective, the telephone server associated with the short code from which the alleged texts were sent, the suit says. However, the company “refused to disclose who it leased the short code to and refused to take action to get the abuse to stop,” the lawsuit states. 

Per the case, the plaintiff also attempted to contact NRCC directly, but his calls went unanswered and the mailbox was full. 

Eventually, the man was able to contact an individual who informed him that his number was removed from the NRCC’s calling list, yet the person could not explain how his number got there, the complaint shares. 

“Put simply, Plaintiff never provided his mobile telephone number to the NRCC or to any political organization for that matter,” the suit reads. 

The lawsuit looks to cover the following groups, or “classes,” of consumers: 

“All persons in the United States who (1) from the date four years prior to the filing of this Complaint through the date notice is sent to the class members; (2) Defendant (or a third person acting on behalf of Defendant) placed at least one text message call; (3) to the person’s cellular telephone number; (4) for the purpose of promoting Defendant’s political agendas or to solicit political donations; (5) using the same dialing equipment that was used to place the text message call to Plaintiff; and (6) for whom Defendant claims it obtained prior express consent in the same manner as Defendant claims it supposedly obtained prior express consent to place text message calls to the Plaintiff, or for whom it did not obtain prior express written consent.” 

“All persons in the United States who (1) from the date four years prior to the filing of this Complaint through the date notice is sent to the class members; (2) Defendant (or a third person acting on behalf of Defendant) placed at least one text message call; (3) to the person’s cellular telephone number; (4) for the purpose of promoting Defendant’s political agendas or to solicit political donations; (5) using the same dialing equipment that was used to place the text message call to Plaintiff; (6) after the person requested that the text message calls stop.”

“All persons in the State of Pennsylvania who (1) from the date one year prior to the filing of this Complaint through the date notice is sent to the class members; (2) Defendant (or a third person acting on behalf of Defendant) placed text message calls; (3) to the person’s cellular telephone number; (4) for the purpose of promoting Defendant’s political agendas or to solicit political donations; (5) for whom Defendant claims it obtained prior express consent in the same manner as Defendant claims it supposedly obtained prior express consent to place text message calls to the Plaintiff, or for whom it did not obtain prior express written consent; and (6) either the text message calls were placed after 9:00 p.m. or the recipient received more than fifty (50) text messages from Defendant.”

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