Seven in ten Americans are worried that the 2024 election will spiral into violence, a DailyMail.com/TIPP poll shows.
70 percent of respondents were concerned about rising tensions in the race for the White House between President Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump.
Another 26 percent said they were not worried and 4 percent said they were not sure.
Our survey of nearly 1,300 American adults comes at the start of Trump’s trial in New York over hush money payments to a porn star, part of what the Republican views as a political coup against him.
Nearly two-thirds of Republican voters say the November election could lead to bloodshed.
Members of the Proud Boys gather to show their support for Trump earlier this month, ahead of his first criminal trial, the hush money case with Stormy Daniels.
It also follows reports of a growing number of threats of online violence against lawmakers, as well as unprecedented gun sales.
Garen Wintemute, an expert on political violence at the University of California, Davis, recently surveyed 8,600 Americans and found widespread support for political violence.
Some Americans have been “preparing for anticipated civil conflict” in an election year, he told DailyMail.com.
A worrying number of gun owners were especially likely to “see political violence as justified,” he said.
“They were more willing to participate in it, more willing to kill to advance political goals, and more willing to organize a violent group.” he added she.
Last week, the Biden Administration tightened rules on conducting background checks on gun buyers, although this is not likely to affect the country’s huge number of gun owners.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the gun industry trade group, recorded 1.8 million gun sales in December 2023, an increase of 1.6 percent from 2022.
There are other worrying signs.
There were 8,008 threats against members of Congress in 2023, a 7 percent increase from 2022, the US Capitol Police say.
1.8 million guns were sold in December 2023, an increase of 1.6 percent from 2022, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
The war in Gaza is stirring passions in the United States that could affect the November elections. Pictured: Jewish Voice for Peace protesters block traffic in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Deputy Chief Constable Ashan Benedict warned of a “very busy year for our special constables”.
Across the United States, more than 40 percent of state lawmakers had been threatened in the three years through January, according to a Brennan Center for Justice survey released at the time.
In another study, the Brennan Center found that 66 percent of poll workers were concerned about safety while working.
The November election will intensify feelings, just as it did the last time Biden and Trump faced off in 2020.
Back then, election officials faced harassment (and worse) when Republicans complained about voting irregularities.
On January 6, 2021, hundreds of Trump supporters violently stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress’ certification of Biden’s victory.
Our poll suggests that Americans are alarmed that similar tensions could flare this year as well.
Respondents from all parts of the country and from all age groups overwhelmingly feared a descent into violence.
Eighty percent of Democratic voters said they feared violence, but so did a hefty 63 percent of Republicans.
The survey has a margin of error of +/-2.8 percent. It was carried out earlier this month by TIPP, which is noted for the accuracy of its surveys.