Democrat Jay Jones emerged victorious in Tuesday’s election for Attorney General in Virginia, defeating Republican incumbent Jason Miyares. As of this writing, Jones won 52.7% of the vote – nearly 1.8 million votes – despite a scandal over texts from 2022 in which Jones fantasized about shooting then-Speaker of the House Todd Gilbert, a Republican, and wished death upon Gilbert’s children.

“Three people, two bullets. Gilbert, hitler, and pol pot. Gilbert gets two bullets to the head. Spoiler: put Gilbert in the crew with the two worst people you know and he receives both bullets every time,” Jones texted. For good measure, Jones fantasized in another text about urinating on the graves of his political opponents.

As the state’s chief law enforcement officer, Jones will wield significant power over nonprofit organizations and their supporters in Virginia. That includes his political opponents, conservative groups and donors, who might criticize or oppose Jones’ actions. While Jones apologized for the texts on the campaign trail, concerns remain about whether conservatives will get a fair shake from his office.

Fortunately, privacy advocates prepared for this moment. In 2022, Virginia passed People United for Privacy Foundation’s model legislation, the Personal Privacy Protection Act, to prohibit state agencies from making unlawful demands or disclosures of personal information belonging to a nonprofit’s members, donors, or volunteers. That law, which has been enacted in 22 states containing over 100 million Americans, poses a major obstacle to any state official seeking to harass a nonprofit’s members or donors.

There are also strong legal precedents protecting the privacy rights of donors. Modern legal protections for donor privacy stretch all the way back to the Civil Rights Movement and continue to hinder abusive practices to this day. But that hasn’t stopped state attorneys general in both parties from abusing their power to target ideological opponents many times before.

As California’s Attorney General, Kamala Harris ignored Supreme Court precedent to demand that every nonprofit in the state turn over its confidential donor list, then promptly leaked the sensitive information online, unleashing harassment and death threats on innocent Americans. That scandal led to another Supreme Court ruling with robust support across the spectrum in 2021 upholding the rights of nonprofits to keep their donor lists private from prying state officials.

While Harris collected donor lists under a statewide policy, the broad investigative powers of an attorney general can also create concerns for nonprofits and their supporters. Next month, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case where the New Jersey attorney general is seeking access to private donor information from a group he is ideologically opposed to. (Be sure to check out People United for Privacy Foundation’s amicus brief in that case, First Choice v. Platkin.)

Officials from both parties have used the subpoena power in ways that raise concerns for donor privacy and freedom of association. In fact, a pro-Palestinian nonprofit recently won an injunction against Virginia’s current Attorney General, Republican Jason Miyares, for attempting to force the group to turn over its donor list. Concerns about donor privacy and free speech for nonprofits are appropriately bipartisan.

While current law offers strong protections for privacy, Virginia has become a hotbed for efforts to restrict nonprofit advocacy and chill donors. As People United for Privacy Foundation has documented, the 2023, 2024, and 2025 legislative sessions saw numerous proposals aimed at making it harder for Virginians to privately support organizations that speak about politics or policy issues. In those years, however, strong bipartisan opposition successfully repelled the threats. Tuesday’s election results could change the dynamic in the General Assembly in 2026.

If the state government ultimately assumes new powers to regulate political speech and donor privacy, the responsibility for wielding them will likely also fall to Jones. One can hope Jones’ apology was sincere and that he will refrain from using his office as a weapon against his opponents. If necessary, conservatives can also turn to state law and court precedents for an essential measure of protection. In the meantime, however, all nonprofits active in Virginia should be prepared for an existential fight in the 2026 session.