WASHINGTON – “Hey.” “Emailing again.” “Can I explain?” “I hate doing this.”

These aren’t email subject lines from a needy paramour. They’re from the presidential candidates.

They really want your money-even “$1 Just $1. That’s all it takes.”

One unfortunate side effect of a race bursting with two dozen Democrats seeking to challenge President Donald Trump is the spam-level volume of fundraising email it has produced.

Since April 1, candidates have sent a combined 1,730 messages, more than 19 a day, to supporters, according to a collection of presidential campaign emails maintained by The Wall Street Journal.

Last weekend alone, the presidential campaigns sent some 130 emails, a bumper crop thanks to the end of the second-quarter fundraising period Sunday. As the sun set, the emails took a similarly dark turn, with subject lines like, “This is it” and “Time is almost up” and “11:59:59 PM.”

Professional email consultants who have worked on presidential campaigns have bad news: There is no such thing as too much. And the more cringeworthy the content, the more likely you are to click and give money.

“What annoys you the most in your inbox is probably what’s doing the best for a candidate,” said Liz Zaretsky, who has written emails for presidential campaigns. “The campaigns don’t love everything they send, but it’s hard to argue with what’s raising money.”

She grudgingly appreciates the doomsday writing style, the awkward embedded GIFs, the novella-length subject lines and other gimmicks most politicians use.

The subject field of a recent dispatch from former Housing Secretary Julián Castro’s campaign clocked in at 44 words spread across four sentences.

The onslaught, and its increasingly desperate tone, is spurred by candidates who need to amass cash for a multibillion-dollar election season and build a roster of thousands of donors to show their grass roots bona fides.

There is an art and a science to political emails, which made their debut on the big stage 16 years ago when then-Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean hired strategists from MoveOn.org, a liberal group that had early success raising money online.

Former President Barack Obama and Trump took email practices to a new level by personalizing messages and experimenting with contests and giveaways.

Trump’s campaign favors ALL CAPS and themes like “Democrats are TERRIFIED” in its subject lines, as digital strategists try to channel their outspoken boss. The campaign sent 54 emails in June, outpacing its Democratic rivals, the Journal’s email collection shows.

Not only can you have dinner with Trump, but you can sip whiskey with New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand or grab a beer with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren (and her husband, Bruce, and her dog, Bailey) if you click on their emails and enter contests for those events. Campaigns can’t require donations as a condition of winning, but they hope you’ll chip in while on their websites.

Adding fuel to the inbox dumpster fire, the Democratic National Committee set donor thresholds as a way to participate in its nationally televised debates. If they didn’t meet the DNC’s polling requirements, candidates needed 65,000 donors across 20 states to make the stage in June and July; the tally doubles for the fall debates. That gives candidates an incentive to send more email, and ask for smaller donations.

At least 359 Democratic presidential campaign emails since April 1 have suggested throwing in just one buck, often providing readers with a big $1 donation button to click. Montana Gov. Steve Bullock was “humbly asking,” a recent email read, “for 1 minute of your time-and $1.”

The 2020 candidates have tried to infuse their emails with personality. For Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, that means talking up “a political revolution.”

For brewpub founder and former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, it means lots of beer references. One subject line read: “Still down to grab a beer with John?”

The self-help author running for president, Marianne Williamson, recently shot a note that began, “I want to go to Washington to co-create with you.”

Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet and former Vice President Joe Biden are among those who have sent emails with no subject line at all. Everyone seems to dabble with emojis.

People who have added their names to New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker’s email list regularly hear from his mom. “Cory knows he can’t do this by himself,” Carolyn Booker wrote recently. Husbands and wives are frequent senders. South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg asked people in June to sign a birthday card for his husband, Chasten.

“Onion goggles optional,” read the subject line of a fundraising email California Sen. Kamala Harris’ husband, Douglas Emhoff, sent on Valentine’s Day. The note suggested cooking for your beloved, and included a selfie of Emhoff in eyewear designed to keep you from crying while slicing onions.

“Doug is really into the campaign and wants to write his own emails, which is, um, fun, since he is not a professional email writer,” said Shelby Cole, the campaign’s deputy digital director. That email, she said, was “ridiculous but endearing and perfect. It was extremely Doug.”

Like the other presidential campaigns, Harris’ team declined to share information about how lucrative their emails are.

Zaretsky, who wrote fundraising emails for Obama’s re-election and for 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, remembers feeling sheepish when the Obama team pushed the button on its sixth fundraising email in a single day.

The results, she said, shocked her. It raised more money than the previous ones and didn’t prompt the wave of unsubscriptions she had feared.

Varying the email sender and playing with the look of the subject line are two of the easiest ways to get people to click, said Lianna Patch, a New Orleans-based commercial email copywriter for 10 years who doesn’t work in politics.

“You want people to feel like they’re getting some sort of value from the emails – whether it is a coupon or an early look at a new product,” Patch said. “You’re not really supposed to just say, ‘Buy this, thanks.’ “

Campaigns seem far blunter than commercial brands about directly asking for money, she said. Hickenlooper’s campaign, in a recent email asking for $1, came straight to the point: “What’s the hangup here?”

– Anthony DeBarros of the WSJ contributed.

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