06/17/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 06/17/2025 14:50
Photo: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images
Commentary by Riley McCabe
Published June 17, 2025
This weekend's violence in Minnesota marked a grim milestone in a growing wave of politically motivated attacks on government officials in the United States.
The attack, in which a suspect impersonating a police officer killed a prominent Minnesota state legislator and wounded another in separate shootings at their homes, is the latest and the deadliest in a rising wave of political violence targeting politicians and other government figures in the United States.
According to CSIS data, between 2016 and 2025, there were 25 attacks and plots targeting elected officials, political candidates, judges, political staff, and other government employees motivated by extremist partisan beliefs. By contrast, only two such incidents were documented in the more than two preceding decades. The number of politically motivated attacks and plots against government figures in just the past five years is more than triple those in the previous 25 years combined.
That surge includes a string of failed assassination attempts. In recent years, politically motivated assailants have firebombed Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro's residence, attacked then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband with a hammer during a break-in intended to hold her hostage, twice attempted to snipe President Trump-at least one of which was politically motivated-and orchestrated a series of drive-by shootings at the homes of New Mexico public officials after falsely claiming an election was rigged.
In each of these cases, serving or former public servants escaped with their lives. This weekend, that luck ran out.
The heightened risk of political violence not only endangers individual lives but also has a politically chilling effect on our democracy. After this weekend's attack, some political demonstrations across Minnesota were canceled out of fear that any gathering could become the gunman's next target. In the longer term, when the prospect of bodily harm becomes part of the job description, talented individuals may decline to run for office or leave public service altogether, narrowing the pool of civic leaders.
There is also the risk that a high-profile attack could serve as a flashpoint and provoke a severe government crackdown on civil liberties or inspire retaliatory violence.
To prevent these consequences and combat political violence, policymakers and authorities can take at least two pragmatic steps.
First, planners must review and strengthen continuity protocols: clear succession plans, rapid replacement mechanisms for vacated government positions, and emergency staffing preparations to ensure stable governance in the aftermath of an attack. These measures can deter would-be assassins by signaling that violence cannot easily upend democratic processes. In bodies where a single seat can tip a voting majority-like Minnesota's state legislature-a successful assassination threatens to distort representative government.
Second, federal and state lawmakers and authorities should evaluate how to increase protective security measures for potential targets at all levels of government. At the federal level, these efforts are well underway. Congress has, in recent years, authorized additional spending to strengthen Capitol security and improve personal security details for its members. Spending by House and Senate candidates on campaign security has also dramatically increased in recent years. Similar efforts have been made to protect federal judges by shielding their personal information from public databases and increasing their security details.
Beneath the federal level, however, protection often falls to modestly funded security teams that focus on building access and patrols rather than individualized measures, leaving legislators and local officials potentially vulnerable, particularly in their private lives. Some measures, such as hardening private residences, are worth evaluating, though they will undoubtedly be constrained by competing budgetary priorities and limited resources. Increased security measures for state and local officials also have the downside of erecting barriers between public servants and the constituents they serve, potentially eroding the accessibility and trust that underpin our democratic system.
Ultimately, increasing security measures cannot entirely mitigate the threat against government targets. Beyond hardening defenses and ensuring continuity, the United States must reckon with the deeper drivers of this violence. Rising levels of political polarization and public approval for violence as a political tactic create fertile ground for extremists to act on violent impulses. Likewise, the ubiquity of incendiary rhetoric and the normalization of aggression in public discourse further erode norms against violence. Prevention, therefore, will require renewed commitments to bridge divides, to hold leaders and influencers accountable for dehumanizing language, and to cultivate civic habits that reject violence as a means of political change.
As our politics grow more dangerous, safeguarding our public servants is not optional. In the weeks and months ahead, Minnesotans and all Americans should insist on a politics where persuasion replaces intimidation, accountability tames vitriol, and the ballot box, not the barrel of a gun, remains the ultimate arbiter of power.
Riley McCabe is an associate fellow for the Warfare, Irregular Threats, and Terrorism Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.
Commentary is produced by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a private, tax-exempt institution focusing on international public policy issues. Its research is nonpartisan and nonproprietary. CSIS does not take specific policy positions. Accordingly, all views, positions, and conclusions expressed in this publication should be understood to be solely those of the author(s).
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