“Are you safe?”
That’s the text I sent a friend and former coworker on Saturday night — after I received yet another news alert about political violence, this time about the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, where I knew she likely was. That I had to send that text at all is crazy. That it’s far from the first time I and many others have sent a text like that should stop all of us cold.
Political violence of any kind is unacceptable, and it cannot be excused or justified by any grievance or ideology. Full stop. It doesn’t matter how much you like or dislike any particular political figure.
This incident made national headlines — as it should. But most threats against America’s public servants never do. And the response to the ones that do have become numbingly predictable: press releases often dressed up as outrage, calls for unity workshopped by out-of-touch consultants, and a news cycle that moves on within 48 hours. No sustained action. No structural change. Just the performance of concern — followed by silence.
That’s not enough. It’s never been enough. And the people (and their families) on the receiving end of these threats know it. They know it because the underlying conditions that make them the targets of violence — the toxic rhetoric, the readily available personal data, the online platforms that amplify threats without consequence, the laws and political incentives that enable all of it — haven’t meaningfully changed in a decade.
The harassment, intimidation, and violence targeting officials at every level of government — across party lines — have risen sharply since 2013. The school board member, county clerk, or local health official facing violent threats rarely makes the news cycle. They also rarely get access to the resources they need to protect themselves and their families. The data on this is alarming, and worth your time.
The money tells part of the story: federal campaigns and committees have spent over $100 million on security in the last decade alone, with security spending in the 2023-24 cycle at over five times what it was in the 2015-16 cycle. Candidates are now budgeting for bodyguards the way they once budgeted for yard signs. And by the way, the figure above is a conservative, minimum estimate and excludes ballooning spending from federal agencies such as the U.S. Secret Service — meaning the actual numbers at the federal level alone are much higher.
Let that sink in.
Protecting yourself while running for office — or simply doing your job in government — has become a line item. A cost of doing business. Something you plan for, budget for, and absorb. We have quietly accepted that the people who run our water systems, staff our emergency rooms, teach our kids, and enforce our laws should expect to be threatened as a condition of their service. That is a profound moral failure. Even more so because we have the tools to fix it — should we choose to do so.
But the threat to public service runs deeper than physical and digital safety. We’re failing public servants in myriad ways that compound over time — in pay, in mental health support, in basic job security — and the costs don’t disappear. They get deferred onto communities less equipped to absorb them, at higher total expense, with worse outcomes for everyone. The bottom line is that America is failing its public servants and it’s making us weaker.
Fear of violence is deterring people from running for office and otherwise engaging in public service. School board members are quitting in record numbers. World-class experts are leaving government rather than risking their families’ safety. This isn’t just a security crisis. It’s a democracy crisis. And in America, it should be unacceptable.
At PSA, we don’t admire problems — we work to solve them. That’s why we’re building the practical tools and raising awareness of the common-sense policy solutions to make public service meaningfully safer and more sustainable, so the 40 million Americans who serve — or have served — in government can more affordably access the resources they need and deserve, and so the structural conditions that have made public service in America more dangerous than ever can actually change.
Threats, harassment, and intimidation should never be the cost of doing business as a public servant in America. The people who show up every day to serve their communities and their country deserve to do that work without fear. That’s not a partisan position. It’s the basic standard every American should expect.
Enough thoughts and prayers. It’s time to act. If you want to be part of the solution, reach out at Hello@ThePublicServiceAlliance.com. We’d love to hear from you.
Take good care,
Isa Ulloa
PSA Founder & CEO
About PSA:
The Public Service Alliance (PSA) is the first nonpartisan platform built to empower America’s estimated 40 million current and former public servants — across all levels of government and political lines — to better and more affordably protect themselves and their families.
PSA operates three programs: (1) The PSA Marketplace, which provides streamlined access to free, discounted, and subsidized services that increase privacy, security, and professional and personal well-being; (2) The PSA Security Project, which produces original research and amplifies common-sense policy solutions to make public service safer; and (3) PSA Advisory Services, which pair former U.S. Secret Service, FBI, and other security experts with individuals and organizations to help them make better risk-mitigation decisions.
PSA’s work has been featured or cited in the Associated Press, The Washington Post, Wired, and CBS Evening News, among other national media outlets. Learn more at PublicServiceAlliance.com.