These House Democrats of color are lightning rods for bigoted attacks, including death threats. Threats against members of Congress increased dramatically during Donald Trump’s presidency, more than doubling in the last five years to 9,600 cases in 2021. Last year, the Capitol Police investigated around 7,500 threats against members of Congress, with Squad offices—and in particular, Ocasio-Cortez’s—being top targets of threats that can be chilling in their specificity.
In October, the Capitol Police organized a special safety briefing for Squad offices, in response to the rising threats against them. Hill staffers (average age 31) are the front-line workers receiving the heaps of acrid political ire that arrives by phone, email, and on social media, including threats of kidnap, rape, and killing. “I’m the oldest person in my office,” Omar told me in 2021. “Most of them are pretty young people. This is their first job. Many of them are still idealistic and hold a lot of reverence for public service and for what this place represents. The fact that they are constantly subjected to death threats and vitriol that they deal with, it is a tragedy.”
As AOC’s chief of staff, Bonilla Chavez had the authority to let his traumatized workers allow the office phones go to voicemail, or send them home for the day when the shit got too real. Ocasio-Cortez has suddenly been assigned large, armed security details for her immediate protection on several occasions during her five years in Congress. Bonilla Chavez believes only former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi saw a comparable number of threats against her office.