Rising Political Tensions Drive Up Candidate Security Expenses, Report Finds

Over the past decade, spending on security for congressional and presidential campaigns has surged to five times its previous levels. This increase is largely due to a growing climate of political hostility that has led to more frequent and severe threats against public figures, ranging from doxing incidents to assassination attempts. This information was highlighted in a report published on Thursday.

According to the Public Service Alliance, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to the safety of public officials, federal political committees have allocated over $40 million toward security expenses in the 2023-24 campaign cycle—the latest period for which data is available. This figure underscores the heightened emphasis on safeguarding candidates amid a tense political landscape.

The report does not disclose which candidates have allocated the most resources toward security. Furthermore, it does not account for the rising security expenditures of the federal government, which include expanded Capitol Police services for Congress members and increased U.S. Secret Service protection for presidential hopefuls, as well as for former and sitting presidents and their families.

These findings come in the wake of numerous incidents of political violence over the past ten years. Notable events include the 2017 shooting at a Republican congressional baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia; the hammer attack in 2022 on the husband of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in California; the 2024 assassination attempt on Republican candidate Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally; and the tragic killings of a Democratic Minnesota state legislator and her husband, as well as conservative commentator Charlie Kirk in Utah, last year.

Justin Sherman, the report’s author, lamented the current situation, remarking, “This is not a good place to be as a country.” The report’s findings were derived from an analysis of publicly accessible filings with the Federal Election Commission, focusing only on expenses explicitly designated for security, though other costs may also involve security elements.

The report calculated security costs by looking at publicly available filings with the Federal Election Commission and tallied only the expenses that were explicitly marked for that purpose, even though other expenses may have a security component.

The total listed security spending represented a small fraction of the billions of dollars spent every two-year election cycle on presidential and congressional campaigns. But Sherman noted that the report totals are conservative and likely understate the financial costs of security for political campaigns.

One of the biggest increases has been in the rapidly growing field of digital security, which includes protecting against hackers and monitoring online threats. Spending went from $50,000 total in the 2015-16 election cycle to $900,000 in 2023-24.

Sherman noted one of the more disturbing findings is campaigns spending nearly $1 million on home security during the past decade, after spending nothing in that category during the 2015-16 election cycle. That includes such expenses as contracts with response companies, window bars and surveillance cameras. That’s a reflection of the increased threats to public officials at their homes.

Critics are increasingly likely to post the home addresses of elected officials on social media, a practice known as doxing. Attacks like the one on Pelosi’s husband in San Francisco and on the Minnesota state lawmaker, Melissa Hortman, and her husband occurred at their homes.

“It’s expected that, say, a GOTV event or a campaign rally is going to have metal detectors and security,” Sherman said. But targeting the homes of candidates and officeholders is a new frontier.

He noted that members of Congress get money in their office budgets that can be used to pay for security, but people thinking of running for office now have to factor home security costs into their decision-making.

“It’s a troubling time when the security spend is becoming a greater barrier for someone running for office,” Sherman said.