Jack Perry for State Senate · Email Performance & Deliverability
How our emails are landing
40 emails · Feb to Jun 2026 · 40,632 sends · sources: NGP, Google Postmaster, DMARcian
The short version
Gmail's trust in us collapsed. Our domain reputation fell from High in March to Low by June. Low reputation means Gmail quietly files our mail in spam, which is why opens dropped from about 26.5 percent in February to 2.2 percent in June.
Spam complaints caused it, not the writing or the tech. Mailing cold and unengaged lists pushed Gmail spam complaints to 1.5 to 2.2 percent on send days, 15 to 22 times the 0.1 percent Gmail tolerates. Authentication (DMARC, DKIM, SPF) is flawless and is not the issue.
The fix is behavioral. Stop mailing non-openers, clean cold lists before sending, keep complaints under 0.1 percent. Reputation heals and opens come back. Do not touch the technical setup; it is correct.
Deliverability scorecard
The whole picture in six numbers. Green is fine, gold is watch, red needs action.
Gmail reputation
Low
Problem
Fell from High in March to Low by June. Low reputation means Gmail routes you to spam. The headline.
Gmail spam complaints
up to 2.2%
Problem
Gmail's safe line is 0.1%. Send days spiked to 1.5-2.2%, 15-22x over. This wrecked the reputation.
Authentication
100%
On track
DMARC at p=reject, DKIM aligned, no spoofers. Technically perfect, not the problem.
Open rate
10.2%
Problem
Well below the 20%+ a healthy list sees. Readership thinned as reputation fell.
Unsubscribe
1.4%
Watch
A bit high. Aim under about 0.5% per send.
Bounce rate
1.2%
On track
Fine on average, but cold-list blasts spiked to 5-6% and started the damage.
Gmail's verdict: our reputation fell off a cliff
Gmail is 49 percent of everyone you mail, so Gmail's opinion is essentially the whole game. On the left, Gmail's trust rating over time. On the right, the spam complaints that drove it down. The two move together.
Domain reputation (Gmail)
User-reported spam rate
How to read this: Reputation held at High through late March, dropped to Medium on April 4 right after the first cold acquisition blast, and slid to Low by early June as complaints kept spiking. The red line on the right is Gmail's 0.1 percent danger threshold. Every visible bar is far above it. Mail is still being accepted (delivery errors near zero), it is just being routed to spam, which is exactly why opens fell while bounces stayed low.
Opens, month by month
Each bar is that month's open rate, weighted by how many people we mailed. The slide tracks the reputation drop.
26.5%
February opens
→
2.2%
June opens
Same shape as the reputation chart. That is not a coincidence.
Every email, in order sent
Bars are opens. 25%+ strong10–25% fairunder 10% weak The line is the click rate.
Bounce rate by email: where the damage started
Most sends bounce under 1 percent, which is healthy. The tall red bars are cold and acquired lists that bounced 4 to 6 percent. Those sends, starting April 4, are what first signaled trouble to the inbox providers.
Highest-bounce sends
Email
Sent to
Bounce
Onboard Blast 2
1,000
6.1%
2/15 sogonex onboard split 4
203
5.42%
Onboard Blast 1
996
5.42%
April 30 Email Blasts - 10 mile radius from zip 06479
2,274
5.1%
3/24 Email to Tier 1 from North Shore List
1,543
4.41%
sogonex onboard split 2
200
3.5%
2/17 sogonex onboard split 5
201
3.48%
Pattern: brand-new or purchased lists (the Onboard Blasts, the 10-mile radius list, the North Shore Tier 1 list) mailed before they were cleaned.
What worked, and what did not
Top performers
Email
Sent to
Open
2/27 sogonex fr
330
43.3%
SB 266Jab
779
40.6%
Tariffs
651
40.4%
2/28E sogonex fr
320
39.4%
Why Im Running
855
35.7%
3/18 sogonex fr
353
33.4%
Pattern: small, targeted sends with a sharp issue or a direct donor ask.
Fell flat
Email
Sent to
Open
CEPResend Nonopeners
2,557
0.9%
Housing
1,307
1.1%
Convention Re Send
1,331
1.6%
Win Back 1
967
1.6%
Convention
1,906
1.7%
SB 1
2,477
2.3%
Pattern: big broad blasts and resends to people who already ignored us.
What this means, in plain English
This is a reputation problem, and we can see it directly. Gmail literally rates senders High to Low, and ours went High to Low between March and June. That rating, not the subject lines, decides whether mail reaches the inbox.
Spam complaints are the cause. At 1.5 to 2.2 percent on send days we are 15 to 22 times over Gmail's 0.1 percent line. Each cold or unwanted blast adds complaints and pushes the rating down.
The mail is filtered, not bounced. Delivery errors and bounces stayed near zero. Gmail accepts our mail and files it in spam, which is why opens cratered with no obvious "failure."
The technical setup is perfect. DMARC is at p=reject, DKIM signs every send, no one is spoofing the domain. There is nothing to fix on the authentication side, and the low SPF number in DMARcian is normal for NGP and harmless.
What to do next
Suppress non-openers now. Stop mailing anyone who has not opened in 60 to 90 days. The single fastest way to cut complaints and lift opens.
Clean every list before you blast it. Verify new or purchased lists so cold sends never bounce above 2 percent or generate complaint spikes again.
Kill blind resends to non-openers. They generate complaints and drag the whole list down. Re-engage that group on a separate, gentle track.
Keep complaints under 0.1 percent and let reputation heal. Mail mostly engaged people for a few weeks; Gmail's rating climbs back from Low toward High and inbox placement recovers.
Leave the authentication alone. DMARC, DKIM, and SPF are correctly configured. No changes needed there.
Sources. NGP Targeted Email (per-email stats and domain-level deliverability for all 40 sends, Feb to Jun 2026, sending as info@voteforjackperry.com via Bonterra/NGP). Google Postmaster Tools (domain reputation, user-reported spam rate, delivery errors, authentication). DMARcian (DMARC p=reject, 100 percent compliant; all senders aligned via DKIM; no threats). Open rates are influenced by privacy image-loading and should be read as direction.