- Joined
- Aug 14, 2025
- Messages
- 352
- Reaction score
- 318
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Independent
Local politicians, judges, officials face increased threats, new data shows
The killing of Charlie Kirk has put a spotlight on political violence in the country. While there have been notable instances of political violence at the national level in recent years, it’s also happening locally.
Local officials have been experiencing an uptick in threats and harassment in the past three and a half years, according to data from Princeton University’s Bridging Divides Initiative.
Across the country, there have been nearly 2,000 incidents of threats and harassment from January 2022 to July 2025, the time period the data spans.
A threat includes any time someone says they intend to harm a local official, like threatening to kill them. Harassment includes aggressive pressure or intimidation of a local, elected, appointed or municipal official. A criminal arrest does not have to occur for threats and harassment to be included in this dataset.
The annual number of threats and harassment against local officials rose from 375 in 2022 to nearly 690 in 2023 — an 83% increase.

Local politicians, judges, officials face increased threats, new data shows
Experts say that the rising threats and national cases of political violence can dissuade people from participating in local politics.
