Google quietly rolled out a new verified sender program that enables candidate campaigns, PACs, and political parties to bypass Gmail’s usual spam filter. The program doesn’t begin until September 8, 2026 but you should start preparing now to take advantage of this opportunity.
Enroll In Campaign Verify
Your campaign’s sending domain has to be verified through Campaign Verify, a nonpartisan nonprofit that already handles verification for political text messaging. You may already be enrolled if you are sending text messages.
The verification relies on your campaign’s registration details with the FEC or state election authority so to ensure everything matches work with your campaign’s treasurer or compliance professional.
Update Your Subdomain
Google requires participants’ sending domain to host or redirect to your campaign’s website. So if you are using a subdomain to send your bulk email (which you should), you’ll need to add an extra redirect at your DNS provider so that the subdomain (email.yourcampaign.com) lands on your homepage (yourcampaign.com).
Setup Postmaster Tools
You’ll also need a free Google Postmaster Tools account verified against your registered sending domain to participate in the program. This is something you can set up now and will provide critical insight about your email marketing performance on Gmail.
Keep Spam Complaints Below 0.3%
After you’re setup and enrolled in the program, there’s an ongoing requirement that your spam complaints average below 0.3% on a 14 day rolling basis. Consequences include a 7 day suspension and permanent removal.
It’s likely that you’ll now be reaching many opted-in subscribers for the first time after overcoming the spam folder. That means you’ll need to reintroduce yourself to avoid being marked as spam by reflex.
Adding non-fundraising asks to the mix, which are less likely to be marked as spam, will help with your average as well. This includes newsletters, issue briefs, and volunteer opportunities.
The volume and frequency of your email fundraising program should slow down too. Now that your messages are getting through, you don’t need to send as many of them, which is one of subscribers’ biggest complaints about campaign emails.
Conclusion
This move by Google is a big opportunity for campaigners and elevates the importance of email as a campaign outreach channel – not just for fundraising. But it’s far from a free pass and campaigns need to work hard to maintain their spam complaint rate.