By Michael Jones

While Pete Aguilar, the No. 3 Democrat in the House of Representatives, was celebrating Thanksgiving with his family in California, he was texting across the country with members of the House Democratic Caucus, over which he had just been elected to another two-year term.

Several House Democrats in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts were attacked in their homes after similar threats were made against nominees for President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet just days earlier. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) later revealed that some members were victims of swatting – a practice in which people make false 911 calls in the hopes that the operator answering the call will be tactical police units sent to a specific address – and with every threat, this was signed “MAGA” at the end of the message.

“We all sign up for these jobs with the double pressure of wanting to help our country and our community,” Aguilar told me last week. “And that’s why we don’t want anything to get in the way of this work. And that is sometimes a reality in public life and we have to take every precaution possible.”

Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-CT), who received a threat, told me the threats impacted her family.

“It’s ridiculous,” she told me. “I mean, I have a teenage son who doesn’t even want to check the mail right now. And running for public office doesn’t mean signing up for these things, and we should have some sort of safety protocol for the district.”

I wish I could tell you the threats were limited to Thanksgiving week. But I told this story to my editors just days before United States Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger told senators at an oversight hearing Wednesday investigating the department that more than 700 threats were made against members in November alone were pronounced, including at least 50 cases of swatting.

On the same day as Manger’s hearing, Nancy Mace, the South Carolina congresswoman who has been on an anti-trans crusade for several weeks, was spotted in the basement of the Capitol and outside the House chamber after claiming she was from one Foster youth advocate says he did nothing more than shake her hand as he urged her to protect transgender rights.

And while the The matter remains controversialIt is clear that the incident is so worrying because it is within the realm of possibility given the political climate in which we find ourselves.

After the Thanksgiving incidents, Jeffries, who along with other congressional leaders has a Capitol Police dignitary protection division, called on Congress to protect all members and their families, a request he repeated this week.

“I was not briefed on the (Mace) incident, but have made it clear that maximum protection should be provided to members of Congress as we move forward in this environment of increasing political violence,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “No member of Congress should be targeted, targeted or attacked because of their political beliefs. This is a democratic, free society and the reports, at least about the alleged attack on Nancy Mace, are very disturbing, but I have not had the opportunity to speak to her directly.”

Threats against members have increased over the past five years. In 2023, the Capitol Police Threat Assessment Section, the division that investigates threats against members of Congress, investigated more than 8,000 cases, including investigations into disturbing statements and direct threats. After high levels in 2021 (9,625) and 2020 (8,613), threats fell to 7,501 in 2022. TAS investigated 6,955 cases in 2019 and 5,206 in 2018.

The threats target members of both parties and are fueled by increasing violent political rhetoric and the false sense of anonymity some people feel on social media.

Manger agrees with members that security will be increased when they are at home or at events outside the Capitol. For example, he urged senators to double the number of officers in the leadership protection department.

“Who would have thought that the threats would go through the roof? “Who would have thought that the tactics of people seeking to disrupt the lives and work of members of Congress would result in 50 people being beaten and disturbed in their homes in the middle of the night in the last month?” Manger said. “The elevated threat level in this country has not abated, so we need additional resources.”

Until the Capitol Police receives these resources, Hayes fears the candidate pool could exclude people from diverse communities and working-class backgrounds.

“I ran for office to do the work and make laws for the people. And the fact that this comes with serious safety concerns for the entire family is just unreasonable,” she said. “And for the people who can’t afford to set up their own private security, it really limits the pool of people who would sign up to do this work.”

Although threat investigation data for this year is not yet available, threats typically increase in an election year. And with Inauguration Day less than six weeks away and Trump suggesting that members of the January 6th Committee should be prosecuted for investigating an insurrection he incited while he fills his Cabinet with loyalists like Kash Patel, To use the FBI as a weapon against Trump’s political enemies, the situation could get worse before it gets better.

“The data kind of makes us clear, right?” Aguilar said. “If the past is the prologue, we must be prepared for it. We need to work on that to make sure our members know that this is coming and that it is in front of us.”

Michael Jones is an independent Capitol Hill correspondent and contributor to COURIER. He is the author of Once Upon a Hill, a newsletter about congressional politics.