Political violence worries widespread among N.H. residents: poll
The threat of political violence weighed heavily on the minds of New Hampshire residents in the wake of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk’s murder, according to data released Tuesday by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center.
Nearly three in four respondents (74 percent) told pollsters they are at least somewhat worried about potentially being victimized in a politically motivated violent act perpetrated by a fellow American, according to data from the survey, which was conducted Sept. 17-23, about a week after Kirk was gunned down in Utah.
This level of concern among New Hampshire residents about political violence was significantly more pervasive than comparable worries about mass shootings (65 percent) and terrorist attacks by foreign actors (40 percent), even as worries about those risks have grown substantially in recent years, according to the data.
Although the UNH pollsters have asked about mass shootings and terrorist attacks in the past, this was their first time including a question specifically about political violence, according to Andrew E. Smith, director of the UNH Survey Center.
Smith said the question was inspired not only by Kirk’s killing in September but also other recent attacks on Republican and Democratic political figures, including the assassination of Democratic former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman in June. The spate of attacks has driven news cycles, spurred fears of potential copycats, and been used as fuel for increasingly heated political rhetoric that reflects a long-running trend toward polarization, he said.
“Depressingly, both political parties, I think, are leveraging it going into the election year next year,” he added.
In the wake of Kirk’s killing, President Trump has called for a crackdown on what he calls the “radical left.” Some GOP leaders in New Hampshire have pushed for similar efforts at the state level, going so far as to claim the nation is “at war.” But others, including Republican Governor Kelly Ayotte, have called for a rhetorical de-escalation.
While the number of right-wing terrorist attacks and plots decreased during the first half of 2025, left-wing terrorist activity increased, surpassing far-right violence for the first time in more than three decades, according to research from the Center for Strategic & International Studies.
That said, the CSIS researchers noted that Dartmouth’s Polarization Research Lab has found Americans tend to dramatically overestimate how willing their political opponents are to endorse partisan violence.
Such misperceptions contribute to “a dangerous environment where extremists can more easily rationalize using violence,” they wrote, describing the present political climate as “combustible.”
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Steven Porter can be reached at steven.porter@globe.com. Follow him @reporterporter.
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