Most Americans Believe a Political Candidate Will Be Assassinated in the Coming Years Per Stunning New Poll

An unsettling new poll from Politico on Monday showed a majority of Americans expect a political candidate will be assassinated in the next five years — and just as alarmingly, a large slice of the American public said they believe political violence is justified.

The grim expectation a candidate will be killed is one of the few issues that most Democrats and Republicans agree on.

“More than half of Americans say that it is very or somewhat likely that a political candidate gets assassinated in the next five years,” Politico wrote. “That view cuts across party lines, with the agreement from 51% of last year’s [Donald] Trump voters and 53% of Americans who voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris.”

The poll was conducted between Oct. 18 and 21, and included 2,051 American adults who were surveyed online. It happened a little more than a month after conservative influencer Charlie Kirk was shot and killed at an event in Utah, and a year after multiple assassination attempts were made against Trump on the campaign trail.

Politico found 55% of Americans believe political violence will increase in the near future; about 50% of Trump supporters and 61% of Harris voters felt that way.

White Americans were the demographic most likely to believe political violence will increase, at 58%, and older respondents tended to be the least optimistic, with 61% of respondents age 55 and older saying they expected violence to increase; 49% of Americans age 18 to 34 and 53% between 35-54 felt violence would jump.

Something else that stood out: nearly two-thirds of Americans (64%) said political violence is never justified. But 24% of respondents said “there are some instances where violence is justified.”

Robert Pape, a political science professor at the University of Chicago, told Politico the U.S. is now in an era of “violent populism.”