WASHINGTON — When Michigan state Rep. Laurie Pohutsky, D-Mich., filed her reelection paperwork this January, she wasn’t just considering policy goals. She was weighing her safety. For her, the decision to run for reelection was a calculated risk, one made easier only because the threats on her life had slowed.
“I hadn’t had a really bad death threat in a while,” she said.
Like many public figures, Pohutsky has received several death threats throughout her seven years in office.
“At one point, I had the address for someone who had sent my office a death threat via email, and they said that all of the legislators – and this was during COVID – all of us should be shot and killed,” she said. “And I flagged that for law enforcement, and they said it wasn’t specific enough.”
As the 2026 midterms approach, and less than a year after a state legislator was killed in Minnesota, security and financial concerns trouble would-be contenders for state legislative offices.
State deadlines to declare candidacy vary, so it will not be clear until July whether nerves over security risks or financial concerns have increased the number of uncontested races. Since 2016, 30% to 50% of state legislative candidates have had no opponent from the other major party. In 2024 alone, of the 5,087 seats up for election, 2,224 were uncontested.
Trading safety for service
While elected officials willingly chose to sacrifice their time and energy during legislative sessions, most did not realize they would also be sacrificing their sense of safety, both for themselves and for their families.
On June 14, 2025, Minnesota Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were killed in their home in a targeted attack, which sent shockwaves through statehouses nationwide. The suspect, Vance Boelter, was indicted for their murders, as well as the shootings of state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette Hoffman.
State Rep. Erin Koegel, D-Minn., who was a friend and colleague of Hortman, not only endured her grief but also worried for her own safety, as she learned that she was on Boelter’s hit list of Democratic Minnesota lawmakers.
“I was, as far as distance from Melissa’s house, my house was probably the next closest,” Koegel said.
After the assassination, Koegel decided to stay at her mom’s house over that weekend. When she came back to her house that Monday, someone started sending pizzas to her doorstep.
“They ordered pizzas to my house the second I got home,” Koegel said. “They knew when I was home, and it was, like, hey, we know where you live, and we know that you’re there right now, and that totally freaked me out.”
She called the police.
These safety concerns often go beyond the state level, with many members of the U.S. Congress echoing those sentiments.
When former U.S. Rep. Debbie Muscarcel-Powell, D-Fla., served in office from 2019 to 2021, she and her colleagues in Washington were in a constant state of worry.
“I’ve had conversations with members of Congress that have told me: I did not sign up to serve, to then be threatened; for my life to be threatened, or my family’s to be threatened,” she said.
In a 2023 survey, the Brennan Center for Justice found that more than 40% of state legislators in their study experienced threats of political violence, with 29% reporting that the seriousness of the incidents had only increased.
Incidents of politically targeted violence impose a significant emotional and physical toll on public officials and distract them from their responsibilities in serving their communities.
Priced out of representation
The financial strain that accompanies state office further discourages candidates for budding legislators and the barriers to retention for lawmakers.
According to the National Conference of State Legislators, the average annual salary for a state legislator in 2025 was $44,320. The lowest annual salary for New Hampshire state legislators is $100. While many states have part-time legislatures, some have full-time positions, with higher salaries. For example, in Michigan, the salary for full-time legislators starts slightly over $71,000.
Vermont state Rep. Mary-Katherine Stone, D-Vt., a legislator vocal about the financial struggles she faces as a working mother, has found the pay to be unsustainable in the long run.
“I’m most likely not going to be able to continue to serve just because now I have another mouth to feed,” Stone said. “I have a little one, and it’s just a lot to only make, you know, $15,000 a year, and it’s a part-time legislative job, but you’re really working full-time for half a year.”
For legislators with children, low legislative pay is only one of their biggest concerns when serving in office and trying to support their families, as many struggle with the logistics of child care and the demands of their busy schedules.
“Right now, I don’t have daycare for my child. My husband is on parental leave from the Air Force for 12 weeks. So he was able to start his parental leave at the start of the session, but come the end of this month, I have no idea what I’m gonna do,” Stone said. “I’ve just been bringing the baby into work every day, but I’m gonna have to do that solo April through May.”
For many legislators with lower salaries, full-time jobs alongside their part-time legislative roles help keep them afloat.
Matthew Foster, a government professor at American University, sees a silver lining in lawmakers handling full-time jobs outside their state offices.
“You want your representatives to look beyond their own self-interest in their pocketbook,” Foster said.
However, these financial barriers can also reduce the number of qualified candidates willing to run for little financial benefit.
“Those that don’t have resources are kind of priced out, because they can’t get a salary to live off of,” Foster said. “It perpetuates the reality that those who get into politics tend to be more privileged economically.”
The growing recruitment gap
According to Foster, another cause of the lack of competition at the state level is the failure of the Democratic and Republican party committees to recruit qualified candidates.
“The first place you should point a finger at is the state party for not trying to do that recruitment,” Foster said.
Organizations such as the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee and the Republican State Leadership Committee typically recruit candidates ahead of campaign seasons.
“I think a lot of parties focus too much on the actual election, the advertising, the money and the campaigning, and not enough prep for the groundwork of cultivating this talent,” Foster said.
Legislators in office often bear recruitment responsibilities as well, especially when seeking young candidates to replace them when they retire.
“I tried to recruit somebody from our local school board,” said Koegel, who is not running for reelection. The candidate she attempted to recruit was a woman of color with experience in office.
“And she was doubting herself, and she decided not to run,” Koegel added.
For Rep. Pohutsky, the stakes of fewer diverse candidates running are clear.
“If we are only represented by people who are independently wealthy or are retired,” then “it’s gonna result in bad policy,” she said.
Published in conjunction with 