The Leadership Conference Education Fund (LCEF) has analyzed FBI hate crime data over the last 15 years and found that hate crimes spike during presidential election seasons. The group warns that the same is likely to happen during the 2024 presidential election, putting minorities and LGBTQ+ Americans at risk.
The report found that attacks against racial and ethnic minorities spiked during the 2008 election season, especially as white nationalist and anti-government groups saw then-candidate Barack Obama poised to become the nation’s first Black president. In 2013, during and immediately following Obama’s re-election campaign, the number of hate crime victims increased by nearly 6.6%, according to data from the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Hate crimes increased to a four-year high during the 2016 election campaign of Donald Trump. Once he took office in 2017, hate crimes reached their highest levels in nine years, including attacks against people perceived as Middle Eastern and Muslim following Trump’s “Muslim ban” and the 49 mostly Hispanic LGBTQ+ people and allies slaughtered in the Pulse nightclub shooting.
In 2020, hate crimes reached an 11-year high amid a violent backlash to the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests and the blaming of COVID-19 on China, the report said.
The most recently available FBI data shows that reported hate crimes are now the highest they’ve ever been since the FBI began tracking such data in 1991, the report added. Leading into 2024, the LCEF worries that political attacks on anti-racist education and LGBTQ+ “groomers” will result in even more hate-motivated attacks.
To help counteract such violence during the upcoming election season, the LCEF has proposed a four-point plan. First, public officials should refrain from and speak out against hate speech. Second, social media platforms should invest in content moderation teams to de-platform sources of hate. Third, the federal government should confront and address white supremacist violence through existing civil rights infrastructure. Finally, Congress should mandate hate crime data collection, requiring all law enforcement agencies to report such data to the DOJ or FBI.
The LCEF is the research and education arm of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the nation’s oldest and largest civil and human rights coalition of more than 230 national organizations. The coalition includes LGBTQ+ organizations such as Human Rights Campaign, GLSEN, Lambda Legal, the Matthew Shepard Foundation, the National Centers for Lesbian Rights and Transgender Equality, PFLAG, and the Trevor Project, among others. The report highlights that action is necessary to prevent more hate crimes and protect minorities and LGBTQ+ Americans during the 2024 presidential election season.
