Transactional emails sent to email subscribers following donations to the Romney and Obama presidential campaigns saw an enormous spike in read rate - an 832% increase for the Romney emails and a 464% lift for Obama. The Romney emails also showed a higher propensity for forwards than the messages that spurred the donation. But both candidates' campaigns are not fully leveraging the rich engagement of transactional emails, leaving out content addressing the critical issues of the campaign and failing to provide an easy way for recipients or referrals to click through for further action.