Pro-Life leader Frank Pavone joined other conservative leaders in signing a letter urging the Cato Institute to retract a deeply flawed study, “Politically Motivated Violence Is Rare in the United States.”
September 29, 2025
Washington, D.C.
Conservatives strongly urge the Cato Institute to retract the deeply flawed study “Politically Motivated Violence Is Rare In the United States,” released on September 11, 2025. It is rife with methodological errors and contributes to an empirically false claim that “right wing violence is on the rise” at a time when the American right is being targeted repeatedly by left wing violence.
The study, authored by the Cato Institute’s Vice President for Economic and Social Policy, Alex Nowrasteh, begins counting political violence in 1975, which conveniently avoids the numerous instances of left-wing violence which dominated the late 1960s and early 1970s – including 25 bombings by the Weather Underground which targeted the U.S. Senate, the Pentagon, the U.S. State Department, and a New York City police station, among others.
More than that, however, the study suffers from a lack of consistent and truthful methodology to categorize incidents of violence. It uses as a data source instead subjective descriptions from overtly partisan groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center, and is rife with misclassifications and omissions, including the omission of almost every major instance of left-wing violence in the last 20 years.
For example, Nowrasteh fails to include the nearly 3,000 fatalities that resulted from the terrorist attacks of 9/11, claiming that the attack would “dominate the data” and “obscure other trends,” while including the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995 – and classifying it, and the 168 lives lost, as right-wing violence.
The study also intentionally lumps into the right-wing category certain ideologies that clearly do not belong there. The ideology of “involuntary celibacy,” known more colloquially as “incels,” are categorized by Nowrasteh as completely right-wing, despite the fact that recent
polls and surveys have found that incels, on average, are positioned slightly left of center.
This erroneous and seemingly arbitrary classification also applies to individual episodes of violence. Robert Long, who went on a misogynist killing spree of sex workers is labeled by Nowrasteh as “right wing,” despite expressing no evidence of a political motive, but known atheist Devin Kelley’s 2012 massacre at a rural church in Texas that resulted in 26 deaths is omitted from the study altogether.
The Christmas parade massacre in Waukesha, Wisconsin, perpetrated by the anti-white, anti-police Darrell Brooks, who killed six victims, is also missing. Moreover, as
meticulously documented in other outlets, in multiple cases, Nowrasteh misstates the number of perpetrators and victims for various crimes.
Nowrasteh also fails to include any of the multiple fatalities linked to the 2020 Black Lives Matter riots as left-wing violence. While the study focuses exclusively on deaths by violence, the erroneous conclusion that “right wing violence is on the rise” also leaves out the effect of left-wing violence: the over $1 billion in estimated damage from the 2020 riots, the
528 attacks on Catholic churches since May, 2020, and the
96 attacks on pregnancy centers and pro-life groups since the leak of the Dobbs decision in May 2022.
Putting out a poor research product would not normally rise to this level of attention. But the Cato study was released at a pivotal and highly charged moment for the country, and immediately promoted by mainstream media, including TIME Magazine, as making the definitive case that “right wing violence is on the rise” – a claim that even the Atlantic Magazine is now
walking back.
The country should not be misled about the rise in violence emanating from the left – and egged on by groups like SPLC, bizarrely used as a data source by Nowrasteh. This work product is methodologically and empirically unsound and as a result, its conclusions untrustworthy.
This is disappointing from the Cato Institute, which has long been considered part of, or at least adjacent to, the American right, and its analysts frequently called by Republican members of Congress as committee witnesses. We urge the Cato Institute to swiftly retract the study in order to retain its credibility as an institution.
The Honorable J. Kenneth Blackwell Chairman, Conservative Action Project President, Council for National Policy The Honorable Tony Perkins President Family Research Council David N. Bossie President Citizens United The Honorable Jim DeMint Chairman, Conservative Partnership Institute Member, US Senate (SC 2005-2013) Eric Teetsel Chief Executive Officer Center for Renewing America William L. Walton The Bill Walton Show Vice Chairman, CPAC The Honorable Bob McEwen U.S. House of Representatives Former Member, Ohio Myron Ebell Chairman American Lands Council The Honorable T. Kenneth Cribb, Jr. Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs President Ronald Reagan Lori Roman President ACRU Action Fund Wesley Denton Chief Operating Officer Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI) Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin (Ret.) Executive Vice President Family Research Council Stacy E. Washington Host, On Air Talent SiriusXM The Honorable Lou Terhar Former Ohio State Senator CNP, Board of Governors Christina Murphy, Esq. President The Martin Foundation Dr. OJ Oleka Chief Executive Officer State Financial Officers Foundation Tom DeWeese President American Policy Center Lisa Calvert Director of Women’s Ministry Houston’s First Baptist Church Joan Holt Lindsey President Lindsey Communications Mark Fitzgibbons President of Corporate Affairs American Target Advertising Seton Motley President Less Government Judson Phillips Founder Tea Party Nation Tim Throckmorton President Lifepointe Ministries Lee Beaman CEO Beaman Ventures Jennifer Hawks President Palo Alto Republican Women Federated Kori Peterson iVoterGuide Ambassador & Policy Advisor iVoterGuide.com Floyd G. Brown President American Media Council Jerry Maston Sr. Pastor River of Life Church James L. Martin Founder/Chairman 60 Plus Association Robert K. Fischer Meeting Coordinator Conservatives of Faith Peter Thomas Chairman The Conservative Caucus Elaine Donnelly President Center for Military Readiness Karen England President Capitol Resource Institute Brian S. Brown President National Organization for Marriage Kathleen Patten President & CEO American Target Advertising, Inc. Amy Kremer Chairwoman Women for America First The Honorable Richard D. Hayes State Representative State of Texas Tim Wildmon President AFA Kimberly Good President & CIO KCG Investment Shea Bradley-Farrell, Ph.D. President Counterpoint Institute for Policy, Research and Education Jackie Jones President & Founder TruthPR.com Robert W. Clyde |
| Jenny Beth Martin Chairman, Tea Party Patriots Citizen Fund & Chairman, CNP Action, Inc. Terry Schilling President American Principles Project Rebecca Weber CEO, Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC) Noah Wall President & Founder State Leadership Initiative Ed Corrigan Vice Chairman, Conservative Action Project President & CEO, Conservative Partnership Institute Chad Connelly Founder and President Faith Wins Thomas E. McClusky Principal Greenlight Strategies, LLC Cleta Mitchell, Esq. Senior Legal Fellow Conservative Partnership Institute Bob Carlstrom President The Carlstrom Group Thomas H. Jones Founder American Accountability Foundation The Honorable Becky Norton Dunlop White House Advisor President Ronald Reagan (1981-1985) Ambassador Carla Sands Kristen A. Ullman President Eagle Forum Rod D. Martin Founder & CEO Martin Capital, Inc. Kevin Freeman Founder NSIC Institute Ron Pearson President Pearson & Pipkin The Honorable George K. Rasley Jr. Managing Editor ConservativeHQ.com William Shaker CEO TWMG C. Preston Noell III President Tradition, Family, Property, Inc. Jeffrey M. Kruszyna Founder JMK Victory Frank Pavone National Director Priests for Life Kelly Monroe Kullberg General Secretary American Association of Evangelicals (AAE) The Honorable Mike Wolfe Candidate Texas State Representative, District 128 Paul Blair Founder Liberty Pastors Netork The Honorable Peter J. Thomas Chairman The Conservative Caucus Richard A. Viguerie Chairman ConservativeHQ.com Dr. Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D. Founder and CEO CorsiNation.com Kay R. Daly President Coalition for a Fair Judiciary Saulius “Saul” Anuzis President 60 Plus Association Jim Pfaff President The Conservative Caucus Paavo Ensio Chairman Universal Minerals Group Gary Marx President Madison Strategies LLC Dr. Paige Patterson President Sandy Creek Toundation Camilla J. Green Board Member Capital Resource Institute The Honorable Gary L. Bauer President American Values Paul Gessing President Rio Grande Foundation Sandy Rios Senior Policy Advisor AFA Ralph A. Rebandt II Founder, Managing Partner Ralph Rebandt for Governor Debbie Wuthnow President IVOTERGUIDE.COM Kristan Hawkins President Students for Life of America/Students for Life Action Allen J. Hebert |
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