Partisan Law Enforcement and Extremist Violence: Evidence from U.S. Sheriffs

Previous research has found that the partisanship of local elected officials affects the incidence of political violence in countries of the Global South, where government responses to violence vary according to the political identify of officials and the perpetrators or victims of the violence. Does this phenomenon extend to the Global North? Analyzing the case of sheriffs in the U.S.--law enforcement officials elected in partisan elections in a context of increasing political polarization, radicalization, and extremist violence--I find robust evidence that sheriffs' partisanship does not affect the incidence of right or left-wing political violence in the counties that they oversee. The results suggest that the effect of local officials' partisanship on the incidence of political violence in the Global South is unlikely to obtain in the Global North. Further analysis suggests competitive elections as a possible mechanism that deters sheriffs from politicizing law enforcement in favor of political allies.