If you wish to help ConservativeHQ reach more readers then donate here.
The conservative leaders who participate in the Conservative Action Project just released a Memo for the Movement entitled, "Conservatives Urge The Cato Institute To Withdraw Its Deeply Flawed Political Violence Study."
We encourage all leaders to share this principled policy statement via social media. The material contained in the Memo provides important information, and we are interested in it being shared widely to shed light on this important issue.
The text of the Memo for the Movement follows:
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
The Honorable George K. Rasley Jr.
Managing Editor
ConservativeHQ.com
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
- ANTIFA network
- Charlie Kirk Assassination
- Trump Executive Order
- Domestic terror designation
- Salt Lake City Utah
- Center for Security Policy
- Armed Queers SLC
- Tyler Robinson
- Lance Twiggs
- horizontal organization
- social media
- Bella Ciao song
- Antifascist Action of Utah (AFA)
- Socialist Rifle Association (SRA)
- FBI
Wanna help us reach more readers?
Since 1999, ConservativeHQ has been providing for free news and information for conservative leaders and activists intended to help grow the conservative movement so large that conservatives will govern America.
If you enjoy our content and wish to help finance the success and growth of ConservativeHQ, then I urge you to donate here, or mail a contribution to: ConservativeHQ, 9625 Surveyor Court, Ste 400, Manassas, VA 20110. Your contribution is not tax deductible, but greatly appreciated!
