President Trump’s political operation has spent more than $1 million on direct mail attacking Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed. One of these ads misleadingly accuses El-Sayed of wanting to “commute sentences for murderers and rapists.” (El-Sayed, during a previous run for governor, proposed commuting sentences of “low risk” prisoners convicted as juveniles.)
The disclosure on this mailer only says, “Paid for by No Going Back PAC Inc.”
Going to the listed website isn’t very helpful. It says only that No Going Back PAC “makes independent expenditures in U.S. federal elections in support of candidates who share the values of the founders and funders of No Going Back PAC Inc.” Unless the recipient has the time and requisite skills to do federal campaign finance research, the “Paid For By” box is a dead end.
Today, that changes. Popular Information is releasing PaidForBy.info, a web app that gives you unprecedented insight into who is really sending you mail — and who is paying for it. All you have to do is take a photo of the front and the back of the political mailer and upload it.
Anyone can use PaidForBy.info for free and it takes seconds.
What you can learn from PaidForBy.info
If a voter uploads the No Going Back PAC mailer targeting El-Sayed, here is some of what they will learn:
PaidForBy.info also produces a condensed graphic summarizing the information, with an image of the mailer, that you can share on social media or via text. In this way, you can help inform your friends and neighbors.
I’ll be blunt: Popular Information has a lot of readers, but only a very small percentage are paid subscribers.
A big reason is that we do not lock anything behind a paywall — even projects like this app that require substantial resources to develop. Our goal is to maximize our impact, not our profit.
If more people upgraded to paid, we could produce more innovations, uncover more corruption, and expose more liars. If you can afford $6 per month or $50 per year, we’d love to have your support.
The enduring relevance of political mail
We live in a digital world, but old-fashioned postal mail continues to play a critical role in American politics. While use of the U.S. Postal Service has declined overall, the volume of political mail continues to be robust. In 2026, across all races, political committees and groups are expected to spend $2.36 billion on direct mail, according to an estimate by PQ Media.
Postal mail maintains certain advantages over TV ads and other forms of paid communications. Television viewing is increasingly fractured, but physical mail continues to be read habitually by voters 50 and older, who cast 55% of all ballots in 2024. While no one knows exactly who watches a particular TV show, political strategists can use the voter file to target political mail precisely to the people they believe will determine the outcome of a race.
Despite its widespread use, political mail is one of the most opaque forms of paid political communication. Television ads are systematically tracked by commercial databases like AdImpact. Digital political ads are posted in public libraries maintained by Meta, Google, and Snapchat. For political mail, there is nothing comparable.
As a result, political mail is often the vehicle of choice for the most scurrilous attacks. Already in 2026, political mailers have been used to target Black voters with Klan imagery, smear a House candidate with AI-doctored photos, and push antisemitic tropes.
The people who receive these mailers often do not know who is responsible for them. PaidForBy.info helps solve this problem.
How to use PaidForBy.info
The tool also works on television and streaming ads. Just pause the screen when the “Paid For By” text appears at the end, take a photo or screenshot, and upload it to PaidForBy.info.
Right now, PaidForBy.info only returns info on committees involved in federal races. But we encourage you to upload mail related to state and local races as well. Every piece of submitted mail will be reviewed by Popular Information’s team of journalists, and we will report on the most newsworthy submissions. In this way, PaidForBy.info will help shine a light on one of the darkest corners of political communication. (Before anything is published, your personal information will be redacted.)
We believe information is power, and this tool is designed to empower you. We hope you will try it out. If you have any questions or feedback, please let us know at mail@popular.info.