Political Violence in the U.S. in the 21st Century

Political violence often translates to assassination, and when we think about political assassinations and assassination attempts, we often think of presidents or presidential candidates: Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy. Certainly other leaders such as Huey Long and leaders of movements, including Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X, have been the victims of assassins. But in 21st-century America, the targets of political violence have included senators and representatives, state legislators, governors, and activists, and, perhaps most disturbingly, the family members of elected and appointed officials.

Here is a look at some of the politically motivated violence, which has been directed at public servants on both sides of the aisle, in the United States in the 21st century.

2011: Gabby Giffords shooting

On January 8, 2011, U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, a Democrat representing Arizona, was meeting with constituents in the parking lot of a Tucson grocery store when an armed gunman opened fire with a semiautomatic handgun. Giffords was shot in the head; 18 others were shot, and 6 people, including one of Giffords’s aides and a nine-year-old girl, were killed.

Discover how ordinary objects work, and expand your understanding of the familiar.

SIGN UP

" height="20" alt="HEW Logo">

Thank you for signing up!"

Back to homepage

By clicking "Sign Up", you consent to the Britannica Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

The gunman, Jared Lee Loughner, was initially determined to be mentally unfit to stand trial; ultimately, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison. He had met Giffords previously at a similar meet and greet, but it was never established whether the shooting was politically motivated. However, Giffords’s 2010 reelection campaign had been met with inflammatory rhetoric, and her offices had been vandalized after she voted for the Affordable Care Act.

Giffords underwent extensive rehabilitative therapy but resigned from her House seat in January 2012. She and her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly (later a U.S. senator from Arizona), formed an organization devoted to tightening gun control laws.

2017: Baseball practice shooting of Steve Scalise

The annual congressional baseball game has been a Washington, D.C., institution for more than a century. Although the game is meant to be a friendly affair to raise money for charity, the reality is that the competitive spirit is real and the desire to beat colleagues from across the aisle is strong. Which is why on the morning of June 14, 2017, Republican lawmakers were gathered to practice their baseball skills at a park in Alexandria, Virginia.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, a Republican from Louisiana, was one of five victims of the shooting, including two police officers who exchanged gunfire with the shooter, who was identified as James T. Hodgkinson. He had approached several members of Congress to ask if the team was made up of Republicans or Democrats. They told him it was a Republican team and he thanked them. The shooting started moments later. Hodgkinson, who was known to be a critic of Pres. Donald Trump, was killed in a shoot-out with police.

Explore Britannica Premium!

The trusted destination for professionals, college students, and lifelong learners.

SUBSCRIBE

2020: Killing of judge’s son

On the evening of July 19, 2020, federal judge Esther Salas, her husband, Mark Anderl, and their 20-year-old son, Daniel, were in their New Jersey home when the doorbell rang. A shooter dressed as a FedEx delivery driver opened fire, killing Daniel Anderl and seriously wounding his father.

The shooter, Roy Den Hollander, was a lawyer who had appeared before Salas. He had described himself as “anti-feminist” and Salas as “a lazy and incompetent Latina judge appointed by Obama.” Hollander killed himself after the shooting.

In 2025 Salas reported that other judges and their relatives had pizzas delivered to their homes with Daniel Anderl’s name on the delivery receipt in what she described as a clear attempt to intimidate members of the bench.

2020: Attempt to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer

In October 2020, just weeks before the 2020 presidential election, the FBI arrested members of an anti-government group known as the Wolverine Watchmen and charged them with a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat.

The plan was to target Whitmer at her vacation home in northern Michigan, and some of those arrested had done reconnaissance missions to determine that she would be most vulnerable to kidnapping while entering the home. The group, which objected to government restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, used code words to try to avoid detection of their plot by law enforcement, calling bombs “cupcakes” and referencing the need for a “baker,” or bomb manufacturer.

Arrests were made before any attempt could be carried out, and Whitmer was unharmed. In the end 14 people were charged in connection with the plot, and nine, including the two ringleaders, were convicted; five others were acquitted.

2022: Attack on Paul Pelosi

Paul Pelosi, the 82-year-old husband of Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, was brutally assaulted in their San Francisco home in the early morning hours of October 28, 2022, by a man who asked, “Where’s Nancy?”

David DePape, who pummeled Paul Pelosi with a hammer and fractured his skull, said at his trial that he went to the home seeking Nancy Pelosi to question her about government corruption. “If she lied, I would break her kneecaps,” he told jurors in his 2023 trial. “The choice is on her.” He was convicted in state and federal trials and received sentences of 30 years and life in prison, respectively.

2024: Attempts on Donald Trump’s life

Former president Donald J. Trump was the victim of an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania in July 2024 and another apparent assassination attempt two months later, in West Palm Beach, Florida.

On a sweltering July evening, just days before he would officially become his party’s nominee for the third time, Trump greeted a large, enthusiastic crowd in a field in Butler, Pennsylvania. About 150 yards (roughly 140 meters) away, Thomas Matthew Crooks took aim from a rooftop overlooking the field. Using his father’s assault rifle, Crooks fired several shots toward the stage. Trump reached up to his ear, then ducked. Within seconds, the Secret Service’s countersnipers returned fire and killed Crooks.

Trump, his face streaked with blood, pumped his fist defiantly as he was pushed by agents toward safety. Two improvised explosives were found in Crooks’s car and another at his family’s home, where officials also found more than a dozen guns. Crooks was a member of a local shooting club. The FBI stated that he likely acted alone.

Weeks later the FBI announced that it was investigating an apparent attempted assassination of Trump while he was golfing with a friend at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Trump was not injured. In September 2025 a Florida jury found Ryan Wesley Routh guilty of attempting to kill Trump among other charges.

2025: Arson at Josh Shapiro’s home

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, his wife, and their children were asleep in the early morning hours of April 13, 2025, when security officers jolted them awake with the news that the governor’s residence was on fire and they needed to evacuate. Hours earlier the home had been the scene of a Passover seder for family.

In the immediate aftermath Shapiro, a Democrat, wondered if a candle left burning from the dinner had sparked the fire. Soon he would be told instead that a would-be assassin had scaled the seven-foot (two-meter) fence around the property, broken in, and set off Molotov cocktails. Police arrested Cody Balmer and charged him with attempted homicide. Balmer told officers that he “harbored hatred” for Shapiro and had intended to bludgeon him to death with a sledgehammer. He also referenced the Israel-Hamas War as motivation for his attack against Shapiro, who is Jewish.

2025: Assassination of Minnesota legislator

In the early morning hours of June 14, 2025, a man impersonating a police officer showed up at the home of Minnesota Democratic state Sen. John Hoffman and shot him and his wife, Yvette, multiple times. Police called to the scene by the Hoffmans’ adult daughter then went to the nearby home of Democratic state Rep. Melissa Hortman. As they arrived, the suspect was shooting Hortman’s husband, Mark.

Police exchanged gunfire with the suspect, whom officials later identified as Vance Boelter, but he escaped. Inside the house Melissa and Mark Hortman were dead. The Hoffmans were gravely wounded but survived. In the fake police car that the suspect had abandoned at the Hortman home, police discovered a list of prominent Minnesota politicians as well as abortion rights activists.

For almost two days police staged a manhunt for the suspect before arresting him late on June 15. While police have not offered a motive, friends have said that Boelter attended Trump rallies and is a devout Christian who opposed abortion. In 2026, Boelter pleaded guilty to federal charges in order to avoid the death penalty; he was sentenced in July to two consecutive life terms plus 40 years. He still faces state charges.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called Hortman a dear friend, telling reporters, “She was a formidable public servant. A fixture and giant in Minnesota. She woke up every day determined to make this state a better place.”

2025: Assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk

Charlie Kirk, the founder of the right-wing youth organization Turning Point USA and a key ally of Pres. Donald Trump, was shot and killed on September 10, 2025, while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University.

Kirk, 31, reached millions of people with the daily radio show The Charlie Kirk Show on the Salem Radio Network. He also had a vast following on social media and was closely aligned with Trump, being a frequent visitor at the president’s Mar-a-Lago estate. The president confirmed Kirk’s death, saying “He was a good man. He was an incredible guy. Nobody like him.” 

In 2012 Kirk, then 18, along with Bill Montgomery, founded Turning Point USA, a nonprofit to encourage students at the high school and college level to engage with conservative politics. Kirk spoke at the Republican National Convention in 2016, 2020, and 2024.

Kirk was shot in the neck at a student event organized by Turning Point USA. Witnesses say a shot rang out just after he had been asked a question about the prevalence of mass shootings in the United States. Witnesses at the scene said the shooting stopped as soon as Kirk was hit. On September 12, 2025, state and federal law enforcement announced the apprehension of a 22-year-old Utah man named Tyler Robinson in Kirk’s death. Family members reportedly said Robinson had expressed contempt for Kirk’s political views. Kirk was married and the father of two children.

2026: Incident at the White House correspondents’ dinner

On April 25, 2026, the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, an annual event intended to celebrate freedom of the press, was rocked when a man armed with multiple weapons fired shots and tried to breach the security perimeter of the ballroom of the Washington Hilton hotel, where the event was being held. Pres. Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump, Vice Pres. JD Vance, and many members of the president’s cabinet, including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, FBI Director Kash Patel, and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, were attending the dinner.

When shots rang out about 8:30 pm, armed law enforcement agents evacuated the president and other dignitaries, while some of the more than 1,000 journalists and media executives in the room dove for cover under tables or began recording the scene with their phones.

Secret Service and other law enforcement agents subdued the gunman, identified as Cole Tomas Allen of California. He was armed with a handgun, a shotgun, and several knives. One Secret Service agent was shot during the altercation with the gunman, but he was wearing a ballistic vest and survived.

Blanche, speaking to the media in the aftermath of the incident, said that there were indications from some of Allen’s writings discovered during the investigation that he “set out to target folks that work in the administration, likely including the president.” Trump was the target of two assassination attempts in 2024, while seeking a second term. On April 27, Allen, 31, was indicted on charges of attempted assassination of the president.

The Washington Hilton hotel was the site of the 1981 assassination attempt on Pres. Ronald Reagan.