Local officials from around the country are reporting a spike in political polarization within their communities in the months leading up to the midterm elections, with the high cost of living a top driver, a new survey shared first with NBC News has found.
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survey → report → News
The results of the survey, conducted over the summer by the nonprofit research firm CivicPulse, show that 41% of local officials reported “substantial negative effects” of polarization, about a 10-point spike from the organization’s three previous surveys.
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% → conduct → surveys
The reported polarization differed depending on the size of the community.
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polarization → report → community
Forty-nine percent of local officials in towns with more than 50,000 residents reported more polarization, compared to 39% of local officials in smaller communities.
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percent → report → communities
In interviews with NBC News, survey participants provided examples of the kind of tensions they’re seeing.
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they → provide → tensions
One described residents venting their frustrations at local officials over national issues like rising gas prices that are out of their control.
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that → describe → control
Another recalled how an immigration arrest sent shock waves through the community, leading to protests and clashes with federal authorities.
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arrest → recall → authorities
A third local official even considered giving up her position over the hostility she has faced doing her job.
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she → consider → job
Still, the survey found that local officials believe political polarization is far worse at the national level, with 91% of participants saying it is “substantially” hurting the country.
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it → find → country
Both nationally and locally, the cost of living was considered one of the most polarizing issues.
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cost → consider → issues
Immigration, election administration and foreign affairs were also among the top drivers nationally, while taxes and housing were high on the list locally, with immigration behind those, but becoming more polarizing as the midterms approach, they said.
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they → become → those
Nathan Lee, CivicPulse’s managing director, said most local governments seem “to be functioning quite a bit more harmoniously and less divisively” than what officials perceive is happening at the national level, but the survey indicates that “that good news is starting to be compromised.”
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news → say → level
‘It’s gotten worse’
James Kvaal, an executive at the Andrew Carnegie Foundation, which commissioned the survey, said political conflict over controversial national issues is increasingly being felt at the local level.
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conflict → get → level
“Some of the rhetoric that’s used in the national debate is now being used locally as well, and I think that is in part due to the heat of the midterms that is bringing greater attention to debates that are dividing our country,” Kvaal said.
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Kvaal → use → country
For April Ramirez, a City Council member in Twentynine Palms, California, the political polarization has grown so “severe” that she considered giving up her seat.
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she → grow → seat
Describing how national issues are affecting local politics, she said, “Some Democrats will not accept an idea if it’s a Republican that’s proposing it, even if it’s fundamentally a Democrat idea that they’re trying to push, and then that’s where the division starts.”
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division → describe → that
Ramirez, a Republican who says she holds some liberal-leaning views, recalled being yelled at and called a “f---ing MAGA b----” for her position supporting a controversial solar development project that she said would have spurred investment in the area but faced opposition from environmentalists.
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she → say → environmentalists
Another time, she said, she was stalked while pursuing a community grant that would have funded things like emergency and homeless services through a church-affiliated nonprofit.
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that → say → nonprofit
Instead, some residents accused her of trying to put money toward upgrading the church.
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residents → accuse → church
“That’s when it got really bad, like to the point of threats, to the point of like, ‘Let’s just run her out of this town,’” Ramirez said.
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Ramirez → ’ → town
The Keller Independent School District in Tarrant County, Texas, has seen its share of political polarization over the years.
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District → see → years
The district became a target of the conservative cellphone company Patriot Mobile after it created a political action committee and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on school board races in the state in 2022.
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it → become → 2022
Company president Glenn Story touted the results to former Donald Trump aide Steve Bannon, who a year earlier had exhorted conservatives to win seats on school boards to “save the nation.”
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who → tout → nation
Speaking to Bannon at the 2022 Conservative Political Action Conference, Story bragged that his group “took over” four of the state’s school boards.
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group → speak → boards
Tensions in the district had escalated over things like book bans, school board trustee Randy Campbell said.
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Campbell → escalate → bans
“Anything that would be nontraditional for quote, unquote, ‘Christian values,’ they would try to have pulled off the shelves, and they did so,” he said, referring to materials that some in the community had targeted over what they said were diversity or LGBTQ themes.
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they → try → community
Campbell, a Democrat, said the culture war issues exemplified “the local impact of Project 2025” in his community, referring to the conservative blueprint for a Republican agenda ahead of the 2024 elections.
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issues → say → elections
Then, last year, the district was nearly split up in a proposal that was pitched as a way to resolve financial problems.
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that → split → problems
Campbell, who opposed the proposal, said the issue was one reason he decided to run for his school board position, explaining that the division “would have been very much on racial and economic lines.”
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division → oppose → lines
“A lot of people have been trying to sew the parts back together, but there’s a lot of resentment on both sides about that failed detachment,” he said.
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he → try → detachment
In Biscoe, North Carolina, Mayor Grant Hinson said political polarization in his community has worsened during Trump’s second term.
A registered Democrat, Hinson said some community members are increasingly hostile to city leaders because of their frustrations related to national politics — a theme highlighted in the CivicPulse survey findings.
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members → say → findings
Pointing to concerns over things like rising gas prices, he added that residents aim their criticisms at local officials “when we have nothing to do with prices of fuel or diesel.”
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we → point → fuel
“I’m like, ‘Listen, I understand that you’re super upset and hyperfocused on the national level, but I’m not,’” he said.
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he → ’m → level
“I’m worried about making sure your water lines are not exploding underneath your house right now.
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lines → ’m → house
“I’ve been elected for four years,” Hinson added later.
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Hinson → elect → years
“This is the first time that people have really sort of beat me up with phone calls.
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people → beat → calls
I would say in the past six months it’s gotten worse, but it’s election season, so I kind of expected it.”
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I → say → it
Julie Checketts, a city council member in Woods Cross, Utah, echoed Hinson’s point that polarization has become worse in the community over the last couple of years.
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polarization → echo → years
“I think the current administration that we have has given people permission to be jerks, to be rude to one another, because I think that basic human behavior starts at the top,” Checketts said.
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Checketts → think → top
Immigration and cost of living top the list
The CivicPulse survey findings noted that 36% of local officials described immigration as “substantially polarizing” in their communities; 44% described it as becoming more so in the run-up to the midterm elections, making it the most rapidly polarizing topic at the local level of the issues asked about in the survey.
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it → top → survey
…and 23 more, not listed.
The Aporia
