Violence among State House Candidates during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Although there is an established comparative literature addressing electoral violence, and an emerging literature on violence against US officeholders, research has not examined levels of violence perpetrated by constituents against US candidates, nor how a crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, including the political polarization connected to it, may affect violence. This note presents findings from a survey of state house candidates from 18 US states in the 2020 electoral cycle. The findings focus on psychological violence and suggest that it is a common occurrence, and that the COVID-19 pandemic and polarization may have affected it. Specifically, most candidates reported that: they believe that the pandemic led to violence; those in states with larger increases in COVID-19 cases and those running in states with higher levels of COVID-19 public political events reported more violence. In addition, candidates running in more polarized states experienced more violence.