2025 saw a measurable rise in targeted political violence and threats in the United States compared with 2024, alongside a documented shift in the ideological mix of terrorist incidents, though overall numbers remained far below historic peaks and most protests stayed peaceful.
High-profile events included the June assassination of Minnesota Democratic state representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, an arson attempt on Pennsylvania Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro’s home, attacks on ICE facilities, and the September assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.START’s terrorism and targeted violence (T2V) database recorded 1,083 qualifying events in 2025, up from 910 in 2024, with terrorism events rising as a share of the total. Princeton’s Bridging Divides Initiative reported targeted violence increased more than 30 percent year-over-year, Capitol Police documented a 58 percent rise in threats against members of Congress, and the largest spike in threats to local officials followed Kirk’s killing. ACLED logged nearly 20,000 demonstrations—a 77 percent jump from 2024 and the highest total since 2020—with violence reported at only 0.5 percent of events. CSIS analysis of 750 attacks and plots from 1994 through mid-2025 found that left-wing incidents outnumbered far-right ones for the first time in more than 30 years. Left-wing terrorism had already been climbing from a low baseline since 2016 (averaging about four incidents per year through 2024); 2025 was on pace for a 30-year high in that category, often targeting government and immigration-enforcement sites.
Right-wing incidents dropped sharply in the first half of the year. Over the prior decade, however, far-right attacks remained far more numerous and lethal (152 incidents and 112 deaths versus 41 incidents and 13 deaths for the left). Experts caution that annual counts are small, ideological coding is often ambiguous, and the 2025 reversal could prove temporary. CPOST research on prosecuted threats to members of Congress showed a steep rise since 2017, with Democrats and Republicans targeted at roughly equal rates. Surveys indicated modest overall growth in public support for political violence, with some polls showing higher willingness among left-leaning respondents in 2025 and others finding persistently higher levels among MAGA-aligned Republicans. Institute for Strategic Dialogue counted 74 extremist-linked attacks and plots (+27 percent year-over-year) that produced 50 deaths, a sharp increase in lethality. Broader FBI crime data for 2025 showed the largest recorded annual drop in overall violent crime, underscoring that political violence is a distinct, smaller subset. Definitions, inclusion criteria, and small sample sizes produce differing tallies across think tanks; both left-wing and right-wing actors have produced high-profile attacks, and threats have chilled civic participation among officials of both parties. The data point to an elevated risk environment heading into later election cycles rather than a one-sided or historically unprecedented wave.
