The gruesome assassination of conservative activist and Trump ally Charlie Kirk is putting candidates on edge, creating a chilling effect among those meeting with constituents on the campaign trail as the nation grapples with a troubling rise in political violence.
Kirk’s murder while speaking at an event at a Utah college on Wednesday reverberated across the country, with both parties quickly condemning the violence and expressing their sympathies to the prominent conservative commentator. Less than 24 hours later, the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) headquarters were targeted by a bomb threat that turned out to not be credible, yet the incident shook an already rattled country.
The recent events have struck a nerve with those campaigning for office, who are contending with heightening security measures and changing safety protocols as acts of violence against politicians and other prominent figures show few signs of waning.
“I think that we’ve all got to rethink how you do events outdoors,” House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer told The Hill.
Yet, Comer acknowledged that most lawmakers wouldn’t have access to the kind of security needed to avoid similar attacks to the one that happened to Kirk.
“Someone said, ‘Do you need to increase the security budget?’” Comer said. “You could’ve had all the security in the world and not notice that. That’s like a Secret Service kind of security, and … members aren’t going to have that.”
“Hopefully the temperature will be turned down in America, and we can have a little more civility in our political rhetoric,” he said.
Rep. Nikema Williams (D-Ga.) told The Hill that “this absolutely gives a chilling effect to everything that is happening.”
And it’s not only incumbents dealing with the increased unease.
At a campaign event in San Antonio shortly after announcing his Senate bid in Texas, state Rep. James Talarico (D) told attendees that he almost cancelled the event.
“But canceling this gathering of neighbors — canceling this community — is the goal of political violence,” Talarico said.
Michigan Senate candidate and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D) said in an X post on Wednesday that a number of her colleagues and friends had received death threats following the shooting.
The unease is also being felt among operatives and staffers as well.
“No one is all that enthusiastic about doing any public events,” said Republican strategist Jason Cabel Roe.
One Democratic operative who works on campaigns told The Hill that while Kirk’s shooting, as well as other recent acts of political violence, have not forced campaigns to change their day-to-day operations, there is a feeling that the job is more difficult.
“You don’t work in campaigns for the money or the hours,” the strategist said. “You do it because you think you’re doing something good.”
The strategist noted the inherent risk that comes with working campaigns, including open air events and door-knocking.
“Our job is talk to strangers all the time. You hope nobody is trying to kill you,” they added.
However, the Democrat said they hoped the uneasiness did not translate into less accessible events.
“Campaigning should be public and big and accessible. It’s bad for our politics if we move things smaller and more closed and more inside. Every campaign is going to make that decision for themselves,” they said.
Operatives on both sides of the aisle also say they are concerned about how Kirk’s shooting and other acts of political violence could impact candidate recruitment.
“It has to,” Roe said.
Roe noted he has been in the process of trying to recruit a candidate who had already voiced concerns about how campaigning could impact their family and their security, and that Kirk’s shooting only heightened those concerns.
When asked if the candidate was still on the fence, he responded: “The fence just got a lot higher.”
“It’s a really hard decision to decide to run for office,” said the unnamed Democratic operative. “It’s long hours, you don’t make any money…a lot of times your family is not always on board and then it’s, you know, I hope you don’t get assassinated.”
Officials announced on Friday that they detained a 22-year-old man following Kirk’s murder. As of publication time, officials have not established a motive behind the deadly Wednesday shooting, yet within minutes and hours of the news that Kirk had been shot, Democrats and Republicans lamented the growing trend of political violence taking hold of the country.
“I think that more political violence is probably likely, and that makes me sad, and I hope that it doesn’t happen, but I think that that is the tinderbox right now,” Rep. Marc Veasey (D-Texas) said.
In the span of a year, President Trump survived two assassination attempts, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) and his family were the targets of an arson attack at his residence; and a Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband were assassinated, while another lawmaker and his wife were also shot.
One Republican strategist noted “a real progression” in Congress following the 2017 shooting of Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) at a congressional baseball game practice.
In addition to Kirk’s assassination and the non-credible DNC bomb threat, the last few days have also seen threats directed at historically Black colleagues and universities (HBCUs), as well as lawmakers like Michigan Lt. Gov Garlin Gilchrist.
Some members say while there are inherent risks, that shouldn’t be grounds to stop their day-to-day activities.
“It’s always a risk. I mean, it’s a bigger risk when your profile gets elevated. I’m sure I have a lot of people who’re not happy with me,” said Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who’s drawn the ire of Trump and his allies as they’ve looked to unseat him this cycle.
“It’s a risk and it’s a concern, but it’s not a reason to quit seeing people,” he said.
But that doesn’t mean it’s business as usual either.
“They’re definitely greater, for sure,” Massie said, when asked if he felt the risks had grown given how much Trump and others had targeted him.
“Yeah, I’ve heightened my own security.”
