Understanding Support for Political Violence in America

Since June 2021, the University of Chicago Project on Security and Threats has conducted nationally representative surveys of violent sentiments for political causes among American adults. These surveys are fielded by the highly reputable NORC at the University of Chicago using the gold standard of polling methodologies – drawing large random samples from panels of 40,000 individuals matched to the US population on dozens of demographic, socio-economic, political, and other factors. This CPOST/NORC survey on political violence was fielded September 9-11, 2022. The crucial question asked respondents whether they agreed, “the use of force is justified to restore Donald Trump to the presidency,” which we have asked, word for word, in four surveys over the past 15 months. Five percent of our sample – the equivalent of 13 million adults now agree with that statement. This number is sharply down -- by over 33% -- from April to September 2022, from 21 million to 13 million.