Both federal assessments and independent research reveal that the majority of political violence in the United States is attributed to right-wing individuals and groups. The Center for Strategic and International Studies found that right-wing extremists were responsible for approximately 67 percent of extremist-related terrorist plots and attacks between 2015 and 2020. It is important to note that this is not the sole source of data about U.S. political violence.
Measuring Political Violence in the United States by Ideological Alignment: Right-Wing Actors Dominate Incidents of Politically Motivated Violence
The Landscape of Domestic Political Violence
Political violence in the U.S. refers to violent acts motivated by political beliefs, ideologies, or partisan affiliations. These range from hate crimes and extremist attacks to targeted assassinations and large-scale terrorism. Data compiled by government agencies and research institutions show that domestic extremism constitutes an enduring national security concern.
Note that these acts have historically emerged from multiple ideological traditions. Left-wing movements produced incidents in the 1960s and 1970s involving radical groups like the Weather Underground. Right-wing violence has shown greater persistence. This has been driven by white supremacists, antigovernment militias, and other extremist factions.
Threat assessments from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Homeland Security highlight that racially-motivated extremists, often associated with far-right ideologies, remain the most lethal domestic threat. These agencies also warn that antigovernment extremists continue to represent a significant and growing source of violence nationwide.
The ideological divide in the U.S. is deeply connected to political polarization. Research from the Pew Research Center shows that partisan animosity has reached record levels. Both Republican and Democratic camps hold unfavorable views of the other. This reinforces ideological identity and hardens societal divisions across political, cultural, and religious lines.
Polarization also amplifies the appeal of extremist rhetoric and fosters settings where individuals are more likely to support or commit violence against political opponents. Studies note that widespread disinformation, incendiary political discourse, and the growth of online echo chambers have further intensified the willingness of individuals to resort to violence.
Statistical Weight of Right-Wing Violence
While left-wing political violence has appeared sporadically in modern decades, data consistently indicate that right-wing actors are responsible for the majority of extremist violence. Reports by organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center show that right-wing extremists dominate organized networks and lethal incidents.
Remember that both the FBI and DHS have identified racially-motivated and anti-government violent extremism, often rooted in far-right or alt-right and ultra-conservative ideologies, as the most persistent and lethal domestic threat. Their joint assessments consistently describe right-wing extremist activity as posing greater risks compared to left-wing or other categories.
Moreover, a 2020 congressional report based on filings and testimonies highlighted that in a dataset of 29 extremist murders in U.S. committed in 2018 and 2019, 26 were attributed to right-wing extremists. This report, presented during oversight hearings, emphasized the dominance of right-wing actors and their ideologies in recent years of lethal political violence.
The Anti-Defamation League reported right-wing extremists, particularly white supremacists, accounted for 85 percent of extremist-related murders in the U.S. in 2021. No left-wing extremists were linked to any of the murders that year. ADL has also reported that 75 percent of political violence from 2013 to 2020 was committed by right-wing extremists.
Civil society tracking also shows the imbalance. The Southern Poverty Law Center recorded 1225 hate and antigovernment extremist factions active in 2021. Most of these were classified as part of the radical right movement. This figure included militias, white nationalist groups, religious radicals, and sovereign citizen organizations that proliferated nationwide.
Event-level datasets produced by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project further confirmed that right-wing groups were responsible for the largest share of organized violent incidents from 2020 to 2023. ACLED also explained that many violent events in the United States remain unattributed or are classified as involving unidentified actors.
Complicating Factors and Other Nuances
However, although right-wing actors dominate the data, analysts note that incidents of violence associated with left-wing or anarchist groups are not absent. ACLED and congressional testimonies mention limited events involving anarchist or radical environmentalist networks, but the totals remain significantly smaller compared to right-wing extremist activity.
The Government Accountability Office has stressed that methodological challenges complicate comparisons across datasets. Definitions of extremism differ. Some incidents are counted as political violence by one source but excluded by another, and many events remain unattributed during investigations. Consistent long-term assessments are a continuing challenge.
Note that the American political spectrum is generally described as a continuum ranging from left to right. The left is associated with progressive policies, social justice, and labor activism. The right emphasizes conservatism, nationalism, and limited government. Radical extensions of both ends sometimes transform ideological beliefs into violent extremist action.
It is also worth mentioning that the political center, or the center-aligned, is typically characterized by moderate stances that blend policy preferences from both sides. It emphasized pragmatism and compromises. However, centrists are rarely associated with extremism, as most cases of politically motivated attacks originate from actors positioned on ideological extremes.
Political violence in the United States is both a symptom and a further driver of polarization. It reflects deepening ideological entrenchment, mistrust across partisan lines, and the influence of extremist subcultures. This heated, polarized environment muddies national unity and challenges institutions tasked with protecting democracy and ensuring public security.
FURTHER READINGS AND REFERENCES
- Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism. 2021. Murder & Extremism in the United States 2021. Anti-Defamation League. Available via PDF
- Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Homeland Security. 2023. Strategic Intelligence Assessment and Data on Domestic Terrorism. Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Homeland Security. Available via PDF
- Jones, S. G. and Doxsee, C. 2020. “The Escalating Terrorism Problem in the United States.” CSIS Briefs. Center for Strategic & International Studies. Available via PDF
- Sacco, L. N. 2023. Understanding and Conceptualizing Domestic Terrorism: Issues for Congress. United States Library of Congress. Available via PDF
- Southern Poverty Law Center. 2023. The Year in Hate and Extremism. Southern Poverty Law Center. Available via PDF