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This year when I checked my voter registration I noticed that the “phone number” field in my profile was not marked as required, and there was a little info icon that said “this is public information” when I clicked on it.

I removed my phone number and the number of text messages diminished (not all the way, but noticeably better). Not a magic bullet, but worth checking.

What's the difference between a scam text posing as a political fundraising text and a political fundraising text in appearance?

How do you know any of the political fundraising texts with weird links are legitimate?

That's the neat part: you don't.

STOP seems to work.

I believe it's legally required to?

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act applies only to "commercial" messages. Political ads are technically exempt, as a free speech issue. But because political ads go out via the usual SMS spam services, STOP usually works anyway. The services don't want their outgoing lines blocked.