This past year, the Left crossed a Rubicon in normalizing political violence.
The year opened with many on the Left praising a man who allegedly murdered a health care CEO, and it ended with Virginia Democrats overwhelmingly voting for a man who fantasized about shooting his political opponent and wished death on his opponent’s children.
Jay Jones, now Virginia’s attorney general-elect, made the most bloodcurdling endorsement of political violence I have ever seen from an elected official, and he justified it with this sentence: “Only when people feel pain personally do they move on policy.”
Jones apologized for the remarks, but he remained in the race, and he even shared a stage with none other than former President Barack Obama. I had hoped my fellow Virginians would reject this message in November, but Jones won the election—setting a horrifying precedent for American politics.
Jones’ election victory highlights the negative partisanship in America, and it comes at the end of a truly horrifying year of left-wing violence. Here are 10 incidents of threats or violence aligning with the Left’s attacks on Trump and his party.
1. Targeting ‘Nazi’ Pete Hegseth
On Jan. 28, Capitol Police arrested Riley Jane English, 24, after she told officers she was carrying a folding knife and two Molotov cocktails. English traveled to Washington, D.C., intending to kill War Secretary Pete Hegseth, whom she referred to as a “Nazi,” or House Speaker Mike Johnson, according to a police affidavit. She also reportedly mentioned wanting to burn down The Heritage Foundation.
This attack followed media reports claiming that Hegseth had a tattoo “associated with white supremacist groups,” when the tattoo merely features the Jerusalem Cross. It also followed a year of false claims about Project 2025, a policy project The Heritage Foundation led.
2. Tesla Vandalism
As the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, headed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, cut wasteful and ideological spending in the early months of this year, vandals targeted Tesla vehicles, dealerships, and charging stations. Agitators burned vehicles to the ground, and protesters marched with a banner reading, “Burn a Tesla, Save Democracy.”
Some agitators even published a map claiming to plot the location of every Tesla owner across the U.S., suggesting users should attack them.
3. New Mexico GOP Vandalized
In April, the Justice Department charged Jamison Wagner, 40, for two attacks: an arson attack on two Tesla vehicles in February featuring swastikas and the graffiti “Die Elon”; and an arson attack on the New Mexico Republican Party headquarters, featuring the graffiti “ICE=KKK.”
“Hurling firebombs is not political protest,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said at the time.
4. National Jewish Museum
In May, a gunman yelling, “Free Palestine,” shot and killed a Jewish couple—Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim—outside the National Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. Elias Rodriguez, 31, faces local and federal murder charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
Rodriguez had previously been associated with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, though the party said he has not been involved with the group since 2017.
5. Boulder Molotov Cocktail Attack
Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, faces 12 hate crime charges for allegedly using Molotov cocktails on June 1 to attack people who marched in solidarity with the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. He shouted, “Free Palestine!” during the attack, and reportedly described Israel as a “cancer entity.” Soliman allegedly wounded 12 victims, one of whom died from her injuries the next day.
6. Apparent Revenge for Hortman
In June, Vance Boelter, 57, allegedly murdered former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman, her husband, and shot state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, both of whom survived. Boelter appears to have been motivated by opposition to abortion, and he targeted Democrats. The Center for Strategic and International Studies categorized the attack as right-wing.
A few days after the assassination, a Democratic Party lobbyist reportedly sent text messages to a former friend of an opposing political viewpoint. The lobbyist wrote, “Excited to have my gun at the capitol and blow somebody’s f—ing face off.”
The Minnesota State Patrol reported in October that it has investigated 50 threats against Minnesota state commissioners, lawmakers, and the governor’s office, more than double the 19 from last year. These threats targeted Republicans, as well as Democrats.
7. Alvarado ICE Attack
On July 4, 10-12 people wearing black clothing started shooting fireworks at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility, spray painting “Ice pig” and “F— you pigs,” on cars and structures, according to prosecutors. When Alvarado police arrived at the scene, one of the agitators allegedly shot one of them in the neck.
About 18 people face federal and state charges for the attack on the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas. Four defendants pleaded not guilty in December.
Joshua Jahn, 29, killed two ICE detainees at a Dallas detention center before taking his own life in a September shooting.
In November, the Department of Homeland Security reported that ICE and Customs and Border Protection have faced nearly 100 vehicular attacks this year, more than double the amount for 2024.
Attacks on federal law enforcement follow years of leftist demonization, comparing ICE to the KKK and the Nazi Gestapo.
8. Annunciation Church Shooting
On Aug. 27, a man who legally changed his name to affirm a transgender identity shot and killed two children and injured thirty others at a school mass at the Church of the Annunciation in Minneapolis.
Other offenders who identified as transgender have also targeted Christians for threats and shootings.
9. Kirk Assassination
On Sept. 10, a man in a relationship with another man who identifies as transgender allegedly murdered Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. The shooting came a few months after the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is notorious for comparing mainstream conservative and Christian groups to the KKK by putting them on a “hate map,” added Turning Point USA to that map.
Many on the Left celebrated Kirk’s death.
10. Arson Attempt
The Kirk assassination sparked more violence. The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office in Minnesota filed charges against a man who allegedly made violent threats in retaliation for Kirk’s death.
On Sept. 17, police in El Paso, Texas, arrested 35-year-old Marynka Marquez and charged her with arson against a place of worship, specifically Beth El Bible Church.
According to police, Marquez “had gone to the church, placed a large bag against the outside wall of the church, set it on fire, and then fled the scene.” The pastor had been leaving the church, so he spotted the fire and put it out.
On Sept. 18, the day after the attack, Beth El Bible Church held a vigil honoring Charlie Kirk.
Many Kirk memorials also faced vandalism.
Political Violence
Neither the Left nor the Right has a monopoly on political violence, as this list demonstrates. Both conservatives and liberals need to condemn these violent attacks.
That said, the normalization of political violence seems particularly worrying on the Left. A YouGov poll conducted in October found that self-identified Democrats are more likely to have a favorable view of Antifa (+15%) than they did in September 2022 (-5%) or even in March 2025 (-7%). The Proud Boys, a right-leaning group that has engaged in street brawls with Antifa, finds no such popularity among self-identified Republicans (-20%), though it is, of course, even less favorable among Democrats (-59%).
While conservatives must remain vigilant to threats from the Right, the Left cannot merely dismiss political violence as a “far-right” or even a “both sides” problem.
