- There have been 25 recorded threat incidents against Utah elected officials in 2025.
- Utah House leadership said lawmakers and media should turn down political temperature.
- The Department of Public Safety works with local law enforcement to protect legislators.
Utah House majority leadership said Wednesday that lawmakers, the press and voters must work together to reverse a climate of political violence following the assassination of a Minnesota legislator last Saturday.
The politically motivated killing came just hours before an apparently accidental fatal shooting at a “No Kings” protest in downtown Salt Lake City. The tragic pair of events speaks “to the times that we’re living in,” House Republican leaders said.
“We have got to find a way to turn down the heat when it comes to politics,” said Rep. Candice Pierucci, R-Herriman, the newly elected House majority whip. “And we have to get to a place where we disagree without thinking the other person is evil.”
It is “terrifying” that the alleged killer in the Minnesota case had a hit list of 70 potential targets, including many Democratic lawmakers, Pierucci said. The way to counter such extremism is to engage more regular, working Utahns in the political process, she added.
Newly elected House Majority Leader Casey Snider, R-Paradise, said the responsibility to heal the nation’s political discourse falls squarely “on all of us as lawmakers” and “the press” so that we can “debate fiercely things we disagree on, but also bring down the temperature.”
In recent years, Utah lawmakers have received “a noticeable increase in verbal threats,” House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, said on Monday.
The number of threat incidents toward Utah elected officials recorded by the Department of Public Safety’s Threat Management Unit has remained fairly steady since 2021, coming in at 54 in 2024, 49 in 2023, and 55 for 2022 and 2021.
The first 7 months of 2025 appear on track to hit the same mark, with 25 threat incidents logged by the agency. But these totals do not include the reports made to Capitol troopers that are classified as “First Amendment-protected information,” according to a Department of Public Safety spokesperson.
How are Utah lawmakers kept safe?
During a media availability on Wednesday with the new House leadership team, Schultz declined to divulge details about how the safety of lawmakers is ensured. But he said the Department of Public Safety is extremely responsive to any potential threats.
“They bend over backwards to vet it, to check it out and to make sure that we have the protection there,” Schultz said.
When lawmakers receive threatening messages, the Utah Highway Patrol will often coordinate with local law enforcement to station officers outside lawmakers’ homes, Schultz said.
The protection of lawmakers includes constant assessments of online activity, Pierucci said. Or, in cases when a lawmaker is sponsoring an especially polarizing piece of legislation, or planning a potentially rowdy town hall, law enforcement will provide a security escort, sometimes for weeks or months at a time.
In a statement to the Deseret News, Department of Public Safety Commissioner Jess Anderson said that he met with state legislators on Wednesday to discuss steps they can take to increase their safety, to explain when the agency takes action and to demonstrate how they monitor potential threats.
“We’re in continuous communication with our federal and local partners to ensure the safety of our elected officials,” Anderson said. “While what happened in Minnesota appears to be an isolated incident, we take all threats very seriously.”
Over the last five years, the number of Utah Highway Patrol officers and security checkpoints at the Capitol Building has also increased dramatically, lawmakers said, adding that they will continue to discuss how to balance their safety with constituent access.
“That’s part of what makes Utah great, is that we are so open and accessible to the public,” Schultz said.
The Department of Public Safety asks Utahns to say something if they see something and to report all suspicious activity to law enforcement, according to Anderson.
The agency will take additional precautions as needed, including by establishing additional safety plans, Anderson said.
“While Utah remains a safe place, we stay vigilant so we can keep it that way, for our elected officials and for the public at large.”