PRESS RELEASE

Following a spike in hostile incidents ahead of the election, officials continued to report elevated levels of threats and harassment during the final quarter of the year, as well as decreased willingness to engage in activities like posting to social media and working on controversial topics.

Princeton, NJ – In partnership with CivicPulse, BDI is releasing the latest results from our ongoing quarterly survey of local officials on their experiences of threats and harassment. The 10th survey round covers the fourth quarter of 2024 and includes responses from over 400 local elected officials and 200 school board officials, putting the total number of participants across all survey waves at more than 4,000. 

After an increase in hostile incidents around the 2024 election, the survey indicates that both hostile experiences and worry about future hostility among local elected officials remained elevated through the end of the year. Threats and harassment continued to have a chilling effect on the functions of local government, with officials reporting particularly high rates of decreased willingness to engage in activities like posting on social media and working on controversial topics.

Continuing Trends

• Levels of hostility continued to vary across demographics, particularly among age, gender, and minority groups.
  • Young officials report significantly higher rates of hostility, worry, and decreased willingness to participate in political processes. For example, 50% of officials under 34 reported threats last quarter – almost three times more than other age groups. 
  • Women report facing significantly higher rates of hostility, worry, and decreased willingness to engage in political activities compared to men. This trend has been consistent across survey waves and carried into last quarter. 
  • Minority officials report experiencing higher rates of attacks, worry about hostility, and decreased willingness to participate in public events or go out in public when not working. For example, over the past four quarters, 23% of minority officials reported worry about attacks, compared to 13% of non-minority officials. 
     
• Severe forms of hostility like threats and attacks continued to cut across party lines. 
  • While Democrats and Independents reported higher levels of insults in the fourth quarter of 2024, rates of severe hostility did not differ substantially by party. 
     

Shifts and New Developments

• Nearly 75% of officials reported at least some reduction in willingness to run for re-election or another office, post on social media, work on controversial topics, attend public events, or be in public while not working, up from 66% during the second quarter of the year. 
   
• Almost 50% of officials reported decreased willingness to work on controversial issues due to concerns about hostility, marking the highest level recorded since the survey began asking about these impacts in 2023. 
   
• While there was a statistically significant decrease in the number of officials that reported a negative impact on their willingness to take part in public events compared to the third quarter of the year leading up to the election, this marked a return to the high baseline from earlier in 2024.
  • More than 1 in 3 officials still expressed decreased willingness to participate in events due to concerns about hostility.
     
• More women officials said that they were concerned about harassment at the end of 2024, returning to high levels recorded earlier in the year following a decline in the third quarter.
  • Nearly half – 49% – reported worry about harassment last quarter, compared to 31% of men. This coincides with a rise in violent rhetoric and online hate targeting women in the aftermath of the election. 

Read the full analysis for a detailed breakdown of important shifts and continuing trends.

This research is produced as part of a joint project launched by BDI and CivicPulse in 2022 to conduct representative national surveys of local officials on their experiences facing threats and harassment. Quarterly surveys of municipal, county, township, and school board officials will continue in 2025. Visit the CivicPulse website to access survey data and an interactive dashboard.

Media Contact: Sam Jones, Communications Manager

BDI is a non-partisan research initiative based at Princeton University that tracks and mitigates political violence in the United States. BDI seeks to contribute to a future where thriving communities are prepared to respond in periods of risk, are empowered to address the long-term divides we face as a society, and are supported to build a pluralistic, multi-racial democracy.

CivicPulse is a non-partisan, non-profit research organization seeking to promote more effective governance in the United States through improved access to reliable data, benchmarking, and research. They accomplish this by bridging the gap between top-tier academic research in politics, governance, and public administration and the needs of elected officials, civil servants, and community stakeholders.

The survey program is conducted as part of BDI’s Understanding Threats and Harassment Against Local Officials (UTH) project, a mixed methods approach to systematically monitor the full scope of threats and harassment facing local officials across the United States. Powered by a consortium of key information and data contributors, the project aims to develop and advance a shared framework for understanding – and countering – hostile incidents targeting local officials. The project is supported by the Brennan Center for Justice, the Bipartisan Policy Center, and generous flexible support from BDI’s core funders, following essential start-up funds from the Anti-Defamation League and Stand Together Trust. For more information about the UTH project and how to cite the research, check our FAQ sheet.