The killing of Charlie Kirk, the shootings of Minnesota legislators, and a wave of other attacks made 2025 the year America could no longer ignore the rise in political violence.  

With the year coming to a close, it’s worth pausing to reflect. When we look back on 2025, what will it be remembered for? 

Will it be for the longest government shutdown in history? President Trump’s sweeping tariffs and trade wars? Elon Musk and the short-lived “DOGE” saga? 

Sadly, 2025 may develop a much darker reputation: the year of political violence. It was a year when threats and attacks became more frequent, more brazen, and more normalized in our political life. There were so many tragic incidents this year that it can be hard to keep them straight. Here are just some of the major ones: 

January 28: U.S. Capitol Police arrested a woman on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., who was carrying a knife, two Molotov cocktails, and a lighter. The woman admitted she planned to assassinate Speaker Mike Johnson, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, whom she called a Nazi. 

March 30: The Republican Party of New Mexico’s headquarters in Albuquerque was targeted by an arson attack. The attackers also spray-painted “ICE = KKK” on the building, comparing immigration enforcement to the Ku Klux Klan.  

April 13: Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s residence was broken into and set on fire shortly after he and his family celebrated Passover. The suspect admitted the attack was in opposition to what the Governor “wants to do to the Palestinian people.” 

May 21: Two Israeli embassy staffers were shot and killed in Washington, D.C., after attending an event at the Capital Jewish Museum. The suspected shooter chanted “free, free Palestine” while in police custody. 

May 30: A Tennessee woman was arrested for threatening to kill Sen. Marsha Blackburn. The woman left a voicemail at Sen. Blackburn’s Nashville office, saying she would shoot the Senator in the head on live television. 

June 1: In Boulder, Colorado, one person was killed and several others critically injured while attending a gathering to mourn the hostages being held by Hamas in Palestine. The suspect yelled “free Palestine” while in police custody, after allegedly throwing homemade Molotov cocktails at the crowd. The FBI is investigating this incident as an act of terrorism.  

June 14: A gunman assassinated Minnesota House Democratic leader Melissa Hortman and her husband at their home in Brooklyn Park, shortly after shooting and critically wounding Democratic state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife. Authorities called it a targeted attack on Democratic officials. 

July 4: Ten people carrying rifles and wearing “military-style clothing” and body armor ambushed an ICE facility in Alvarado, Texas, shooting and wounding one police officer. The attackers spraypainted “traitor” and “ICE pigs” around the facility. Authorities also recovered flags and flyers reading “Resist fascism, fight oligarchy” and “Fight ICE terror with class war” from the attackers. 

August 8: A gunman fired 180 shots into the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters in Atlanta, killing a police officer. Authorities believe the shooter was anti-vaccine, and that he blamed the Covid vaccine for his mental health issues.  

September 10: Charlie Kirk, founder and leader of the conservative youth group Turning Point USA, was assassinated while speaking at Utah Valley University. Authorities say the suspect engraved anti-fascist messages on the bullets, and in a text message the alleged shooter wrote, “I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out.”  

September 21: A gunman fired into an ICE facility in Dallas, killing one detainee and injuring two others. But authorities believe the shooter meant to kill ICE agents, pointing to letters he wrote calling ICE “human traffickers.” 

October 17:  A New York man, shortly after being pardoned for his role in the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol, was arrested for threatening to assassinate House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries.  “I cannot allow this terrorist to live,” the man wrote about Leader Jeffries. “He must be eliminated. I will kill him for the future.” 

November 3: A Politico poll found that half of Americans expect a major political assassination in the next five years and, even more troubling, that 24% of people think political violence is justified in at least some instances. 

November 5: Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, a No Labels National Leader, announced he would not seek reelection to Congress, in part because of violent threats to him and his family. Just read this excerpt from Rep. Golden’s message to the No Labels community:  

The rise of political violence has made it impossible to ignore how much the ground has shifted beneath us. The high-profile incidents are not the only ones. My family has lived through more threats than I care to count. I remember all of us sitting together in a hotel room on Thanksgiving last year after yet another credible threat against our home. 

As my oldest daughter reaches school age, I cannot pretend this is normal—or fair to them. 

I have also had to ask whether the good I can do in Congress still outweighs what my family is asked to endure. And when I consider how broken the system has become, the answer is clear. 

November 17: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia revealed that her family’s construction company received bomb threats, which she blamed on “”President Trump’s unwarranted and vicious attacks against me.” Hours later, Rep. Greene’s 22-year-old son received credible death threats.  

November 22: Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan received a bomb threat at her home, shortly after President Trump called for Sen. Slotkin and other Congressional Democrats to be arrested for “seditious behavior, punishable by death!”  

November 26: A 20-year-old member of the National Guard was shot and killed, and another Guard was critically wounded during a targeted shooting just blocks from the White House. The suspected shooter shouted “Allahu Akbar,” a phrase associated with Islamic terrorism. The suspect was an Afghan who worked closely with the U.S. military in Afghanistan, and he came to the states after the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021. Authorities have not yet identified a motive. 

Late November: In Indiana, Gov. Mike Braun and at least 10 different Republican state legislators were threatened and harassed after failing to redraw the state’s Congressional districts like President Trump and other national Republicans wanted them to. Five of the Republicans were targeted by “swatting,” a potentially deadly hoax where someone reports a fake emergency at the target’s house to prompt a law enforcement response. Three more Republicans reported bomb threats, while the other three didn’t specify the nature of the violent threats they received.  

December 1: Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer reported that three of his New York offices received bomb threats from someone who claimed the 2020 election was stolen, a debunked conspiracy theory spread by President Trump. 

No democracy can thrive when public service comes with a constant risk of violence.  

The incidents we saw throughout 2025 weren’t random; they reflected a climate where threats, harassment, and extremist rhetoric increasingly spill over into real-world harm.  

We should treat this year as a line in the sand. If we want a healthier politics, then leaders and citizens alike need to reject any hint of political violence and refuse to reward those who traffic in it. 

That’s why No Labels is working with committed Democrats, Republicans, and independents who are determined to cool the temperature and restore a baseline of safety and respect in our civic life.  

We can’t undo the events of 2025, but we can decide they won’t define the years ahead.