Arizona state representative Alma Hernandez faces violent threats for her political work. She installed cameras and iron bars at her home after people sent death threats. "Politicians are no longer treated like we're human," she said. These attacks from many sides have changed her life and how she does politics.

Alma Hernandez, an Arizona state representative, has been a target of numerous violent threats for her political positions and work as a lawmaker.Credit...Adriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times

Alma Hernandez's home used to feel like her sanctuary. Now it feels like a fortress.

In recent years she has installed cameras, alarms and a lock that opens with her fingerprint. She put iron bars on her windows and a blinding floodlight on her front porch. She cut down two trees in her yard after the police told her they could aid an intruder, and her brother moved in to protect her when the death threats intensified.

Ms. Hernandez, an Arizona state representative since 2019, did not know she was signing up for a dangerous job. But these days, serving in public office increasingly means looking over your shoulder.

"Politicians are no longer treated like we're human," she said.

Ms. Hernandez, a fourth-term Democratic lawmaker who is Mexican American and Jewish, has received threats from the far left and the far right. They have come in response to her outspoken support for Israel, her championing of vaccines and her first campaign, which drew attention from David Duke, a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan.

Violent threats have arrived via her social media feed, her email inbox and her office phones. Her home address has been circulated online, and her mother has received menacing calls. Last year, an aide's car parked outside Ms. Hernandez's house was struck by gunfire. This year, state police opened an investigation after someone sent her a social media message pledging to "find, torture and brutally murder" her and her friends, along with one of her two Chihuahuas.

So pervasive are the threats that they have altered not only Ms. Hernandez's life, but also those of her family, friends and neighbors, who now keep a close eye on her home and warn her about suspicious activity. The intimidation has even influenced her approach to policymaking.

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