The ninth quarterly survey provides updated findings from the Q3 2024 nationally representative BDI-CivicPulse survey of local elected officials and school board members on their experiences of hostility. This wave surveyed over 400 local elected officials and 200 school board officials, putting the total number of participants across all nine survey waves at more than 4,100. This round of respondents was surveyed in the run-up to the 2024 election, covering their experiences between July and October. Compared to Q2, significantly more officials reported experiencing insults and harassment in Q3, while reports of threats continued at consistent levels. There was a decrease in respondents who reported worry about hostility following the previous survey round, which was conducted in the immediate aftermath of the shooting at President-elect Trump’s campaign rally, though the findings indicate that levels of concern remained at a high baseline going into the election period. This research is produced as part of an ongoing joint project launched by BDI and CivicPulse in August 2022 to conduct quarterly national surveys of local officials on their experiences facing threats and harassment. These quarterly updates allow us to identify spikes or shifts in hostility and monitor important trends in threats and harassment as we enter the 2024 election cycle.
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