Since Donald Trump first ran for president in 2016, disinformation has quickly evolved to become the biggest threat to elections — and not just in the U.S., but the world. In 2016, it was Russia’s attempt to sow discord through the spread of disinformation to help Trump get elected. In 2020, Trump and his acolytes tried to steal the election from former President Joe Biden with false claims of mass voter fraud, rigged voting machines and bogus legal attempts to overturn the election results.

In 2024, Olsen could sense another disinformation storm brewing. The GOP launched an unprecedented effort to spread the false notion that noncitizens were voting en masse in federal elections, teeing up a narrative to once again claim that the election was stolen from Trump, had he lost. That narrative especially took hold in Virginia, when in early August Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) signed an executive order to formalize a program to purge alleged noncitizens from the state’s voter rolls.

When it comes to elections, Virginia isn’t like most other states. It holds off-year state elections, which are often seen as a bellwether for the next federal election cycle. Whatever big issues and narratives emerge as the focal point in the 2026 midterm elections, they’re likely to first sprout during Virginia’s consequential gubernatorial and state elections in November — especially given that Youngkin is term-limited and can’t run for reelection.

Given how prominently disinformation played in Virginia’s federal elections last year, election officials, voting rights advocates and grassroots pro-democracy organizers are bracing for another election rife with right-wing disinformation — and an avalanche of money spent to promote it.