The number of threats made against members of Congress saw a significant increase in 2025 according to a Capitol police report.
Last year’s spike marked the third-consecutive year United States Capitol Police (USCP) recorded a spike in “concerning statements, behaviors, and communications” made against elected officials.
A USCP report released Tuesday said 14,938 such instances were investigated in 2025. Authorities recorded 8,008 threats in 2023 and 7,501 in 2022. Threats on lawmakers reached 9,625 in 2021 when the U.S. Capitol was stormed by supporters of President Trump hoping to stop the certification of the presidential election he’d lost to Joe Biden.
That number marked a significant leap from the 8,613 threats the USCP’s Threat Assessment Section (TAS) investigated in 2020.
Capitol Police reported that “Decreasing violent political rhetoric is one of the best ways to decrease the number of threats across the country.”
Authorities didn’t get into specifics about threats that have been made or their targets, other than stating that representatives from both political parties receive a wide range of intimidation in several forms.
The UCSP report said threats made online by people feeling they enjoy a “false sense of anonymity” have led to more investigations in recent years.
“While security on Capitol Grounds has already improved, we have been strengthening our partnerships with law enforcement agencies across the country to keep the Members of Congress safe when they are away from Capitol Hill,” according to Capitol Police Chief Michael Sullivan. “We want to make sure agencies have the resources they need to be able to enhance protection, which is critical to the democratic process.”
The USCP said that it tripled its number of formal agreements made with local law enforcement in 2025 to protect federal representatives in their home districts.
A Pew Research study published in October found that 85% of Americans believe violence inspired by politics is on the rise. That report said respondents from both sides of the ideological spectrum share that opinion and blame liberal and conservative extremists equally.
