SMTP handshake not working, blocked on port 25?

I’m trying to run a basic script that verifies an email address. It uses an SMTP handshake like so:

server = smtplib.SMTP(timeout=10)
server.set_debuglevel(1)
server.connect(mx, port=25)
server.helo('example.com')
server.mail('you@example.com')
code, message = server.rcpt(email)
server.quit()

I know that Digital Ocean blocks on port 25 to prevent spam, but it would be great to be unblocked so I can do email verification. I do all email sending through Amazon SES so I only need port 25 unblocked for email verification.

I open a support ticket (#09070834) two days ago but haven’t heard back so figured I’d ask here. Thanks in advance