Virginia prosecutor Shannon Taylor announced that she is running for the Democrat nomination for the 2026 congressional midterms in an attempt to remove nine-term Republican incumbent Rep. Rob Wittman. It’s a seat that national Democrats look to target with significant resources.
Though a member of the Virginia Progressive Prosecutors for Justice, the Henrico County commonwealth’s attorney’s tenure predates the 2016 George Soros-funded campaigns throughout the country to oust Republican and centrist Democrat prosecutors in favor of ones who would use their prosecutorial discretion to do what has been dubbed “hug-and-release” justice reform.
Unlike Ray Morrogh, a Democrat who was ousted by Soros-backed Steve Descano in 2019 for Fairfax County commonwealth’s attorney, Taylor was able to impress the Soros crowd enough to avoid primary challenges during her tenure. She narrowly lost to Jay Jones for the Democratic Party nomination for Virginia’s next attorney general.
Having the statewide experience of that campaign for attorney general may put her at the top of a crowded field looking to flip Virginia’s 1st Congressional District from red to blue.
Fundraising will be a strong suit. She raised over $2 million in her primary challenge with Jones. The largest chunk of that, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, came from Dominion Energy, which contributed $800,000. Jones made that major corporate donation a campaign issue in his narrow victory earlier this year.
Taylor’s record since flipping the commonwealth attorney’s office in 2011 from Republican is mediocre by most standards. Henrico’s crime rate stands at approximately 35.16 crimes per 1,000 residents annually, which is higher than both the Virginia state average and the national average.
According to the website Crimegrade.org, which aggregates publicly available crime statistics, Henrico County holds a C- grade for overall crime, with an A- in violent crime but a lower D+ grade for property crimes, highlighting property-related offenses (burglary, theft, vehicle theft) as a continuing concern.
Taylor’s office has handled several high-profile cases and was recently at the center of the investigation into former Henrico Doctors’ Hospital nurse Erin Strotman, who is facing charges for allegedly abusing multiple infants in the neonatal intensive care unit beginning in 2022.
The 2026 race for Virginia’s 1st Congressional District is going to have considerable money available to the Democratic Party’s nominee. Republican Wittman’s opposition to President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency efforts has led the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to identify the district as a target, signaling party investment and confidence in its competitiveness.
The Cook Political Report is currently looking at the race as a tossup, 50-50, despite Wittman winning in 2024 with 55% of the vote. However, Inside Elections and University of Virginia Center for Politics’ Sabato’s Crystal Ball still rate the race as “Likely Republican.”
To date, in addition to Taylor, several individuals have filed with the Democratic Party to run for the nomination for the 1st Congressional District seat: Salaam Bhatti, a lawyer with the Virginia Poverty Law Center; Tim Cywinski with the Virginia Sierra Club; Lisa Vedernikova Khanna with the Metro Richmond Area Young Democrats; Ericka Kopp, a health care lawyer; Andrew Lucchetti, a Henrico County-based civil rights lawyer; Amanda Pohl, the Chesterfield County Circuit Court clerk; James Michael Shea, a public schoolteacher in Henrico County; Sean Sublette, a freelance meteorologist; and Melvin Tull, a lawyer and military veteran.
