Dave Sunday is the 51st Attorney General of Pennsylvania, taking office on January 21, 2025 after winning the November 2024 general election against Democratic state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale. Sunday is a Navy veteran, a former district attorney of York County who served from 2018 through January 2025, and the second Republican to hold the Pennsylvania AG office in the past forty years. His current term runs through January 16, 2029. This guide walks through how Sunday built his prosecutorial career, what his first-year priorities and operational decisions in the AG office have looked like, and what the office’s portfolio means for ordinary Pennsylvanians.

From the Navy to York County District Attorney

David Winslow Sunday Jr. was born on June 13, 1975, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Cumberland and Dauphin counties in the south-central part of the state. After high school he enlisted in the United States Navy, where he was deployed to the Persian Gulf for Operation Desert Strike and later participated in counter-narcotics operations in the Caribbean. He returned to Pennsylvania for college, earning his undergraduate degree in finance from Penn State University and his Juris Doctor from Widener University Commonwealth Law School in Harrisburg.

Sunday began his legal career as a prosecutor in the York County District Attorney’s Office, where he worked through the violent-crime, drug-trafficking, and major-cases units. In 2013, he was appointed by the U.S. Department of Justice as a Special Assistant United States Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, where he led the prosecution of Operation Sunrise — a large multi-jurisdictional investigation that arrested and prosecuted over 100 members and affiliates of the Latin Kings, a violent street gang then operating across York County and surrounding counties. The Operation Sunrise prosecutions became the central credential of Sunday’s prosecutorial record and the foundation of his subsequent campaigns for elected office.

Sunday was elected District Attorney of York County in 2017 and took office in January 2018. He served two terms as DA through January 2025, when he assumed the Pennsylvania AG office. As DA he expanded the office’s drug-task-force operations, ran an early-intervention diversion program for first-time offenders with substance-use disorders, and was active in opioid-overdose response coordination with York County emergency services.

The 2024 Attorney General campaign

Sunday announced his candidacy for Attorney General in July 2023, entering a Republican primary field that he ultimately won against state Representative Craig Williams in April 2024. The Democratic primary that same month nominated former state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale, a two-term statewide officeholder with a base in York County — the same county that had elected Sunday as DA. The general election thus featured two candidates with overlapping geographic constituencies and contrasting career trajectories: DePasquale’s accounting and statewide political experience against Sunday’s prosecutorial and military background.

Sunday won the November 2024 general election. His Ballotpedia electoral record documents the margins. He was sworn in on January 21, 2025, succeeding former AG Michelle Henry, who had served the remainder of Josh Shapiro’s term after Shapiro’s election as Governor.

The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office

The Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General represents the Commonwealth and its agencies in civil and criminal matters, prosecutes statewide crimes including organized crime and Medicaid fraud, runs a Bureau of Consumer Protection that handles consumer fraud and elder-abuse complaints, runs a Bureau of Criminal Investigation that includes specialized units for child predators, narcotics, and public corruption, defends the constitutionality of state statutes when challenged, and operates the Charitable Trusts and Organizations Section that regulates nonprofits operating in Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania AG office is uncommon among state AG offices in that it has prosecutorial authority for several statewide criminal categories that other states’ AG offices do not handle directly.

Sunday’s stated priorities during the 2024 campaign and his first year in office have centered on four areas. The first is the fentanyl epidemic and the broader opioid response, drawing on his York County experience with overdose-response coordination. The second is consumer-protection enforcement focused on scams targeting elderly Pennsylvanians, including the romance scams, tech-support fraud, and government-impersonation schemes that disproportionately reach older residents. The third is gang violence and the prosecution of multi-jurisdictional drug-trafficking organizations, building on the Operation Sunrise template. The fourth is online child-predator enforcement, run through the Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s specialized unit.

What this matters for Pennsylvanians

The Pennsylvania AG office’s operational reach into ordinary residents’ lives runs through several specific functions: the Bureau of Consumer Protection’s intake of consumer-fraud complaints, the Elder Abuse Hotline operated by the Bureau of Consumer Protection, the Charitable Trusts office’s oversight of nonprofits soliciting in Pennsylvania, and the statewide grand jury system through which the office prosecutes multi-county organized crime. Pennsylvanians who experience consumer fraud, charitable-solicitation fraud, or elder abuse can file complaints with the office through its public-facing intake portal.

Most criminal prosecutions in Pennsylvania are handled by elected county district attorneys — the office Sunday himself held in York County — rather than by the AG. The AG office’s criminal docket focuses on cases that cross county lines, target organized criminal enterprises, or require investigative resources beyond what a local DA’s office can field. The office’s profile maintained by the National Association of Attorneys General summarizes the office’s official priorities and operational structure.

For Pennsylvanians evaluating a specific personal-injury claim — a car accident, a slip and fall, a workplace injury, or a medical-malpractice matter — the AG’s office is not the right resource. Personal-injury claims run through Pennsylvania’s civil-court system with private-practice plaintiff’s attorneys, governed by Pennsylvania’s two-year personal-injury statute of limitations and a distinctive limited-tort versus full-tort auto-insurance framework that affects what an injured plaintiff can recover. Our Philadelphia personal injury lawyer guide walks through the Pennsylvania rules and the practical sequence in which a PI case moves through the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas and surrounding counties.

Bottom line

Dave Sunday entered office in January 2025 as a career prosecutor with a Navy background, a York County base, and a stated focus on opioid response, elder-abuse enforcement, gang prosecutions, and online child predators. His first year in office has worked from those priorities. He is the second Republican to hold the Pennsylvania AG office in the past forty years; his term runs through January 2029. The next four years will determine whether the AG office under his leadership continues the multistate-coalition pattern that characterized his Democratic predecessors’ tenures, leans more heavily into the criminal-prosecution side of the office’s portfolio, or builds out something different.

Frequently asked questions

Who is the current Attorney General of Pennsylvania?

Dave Sunday has served as Pennsylvania Attorney General since January 21, 2025. He won the November 2024 general election against Democratic former state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale and succeeded Michelle Henry, who had served the remainder of Josh Shapiro’s term after Shapiro became governor. Sunday’s current term runs through January 16, 2029.

What was Dave Sunday’s career before becoming AG?

Sunday served in the U.S. Navy with deployments to the Persian Gulf (Operation Desert Strike) and counter-narcotics operations in the Caribbean. He earned an undergraduate degree from Penn State and a law degree from Widener University Commonwealth Law School. He worked as a prosecutor in the York County District Attorney’s Office, was appointed Special Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania in 2013, led the Operation Sunrise prosecutions of the Latin Kings gang, and was elected York County District Attorney in 2017, serving two terms from January 2018 through January 2025.

What does the Pennsylvania Attorney General do?

The Pennsylvania AG is the chief legal officer of the Commonwealth. The office represents the state in civil and criminal matters, prosecutes statewide and multi-county crimes including organized crime and Medicaid fraud, defends the constitutionality of state statutes, runs a Bureau of Consumer Protection that handles consumer fraud and elder-abuse complaints, runs a Bureau of Criminal Investigation that includes specialized units for child predators and narcotics, and oversees charities through the Charitable Trusts and Organizations Section. Most local criminal prosecutions in Pennsylvania are handled by elected county district attorneys; the AG office’s criminal docket focuses on cases that cross county lines or require resources beyond a local DA’s office.

What are Dave Sunday’s stated priorities as AG?

Sunday has stated four operational priorities: the fentanyl and broader opioid epidemic, consumer-protection enforcement focused on scams targeting elderly Pennsylvanians, multi-jurisdictional gang and drug-trafficking prosecutions, and online child-predator enforcement. The priorities draw on his York County DA experience with overdose-response coordination and the Operation Sunrise prosecution template.

How do I file a complaint with the Pennsylvania Attorney General?

The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office accepts complaints through its public-facing portal at attorneygeneral.gov. Common categories include consumer fraud, charitable-solicitation fraud, elder-abuse reporting via the Elder Abuse Hotline, Medicaid fraud reporting, and complaints about practices by nonprofits operating in Pennsylvania. Each category has its own intake form and process.

Sources

Featured image: photo by Andre Frueh on Unsplash.

This article is general legal information about the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General and is not legal advice. For case-specific evaluation of a Pennsylvania legal matter, contact a Pennsylvania-licensed attorney in the relevant practice area.