VA-01: Shannon Taylor (D) launches bid to represent Virginia's 1st Congressional District
Henrico County Commonwealth’s Attorney Shannon Taylor launched her bid for Congress Monday morning, less than three months after losing the Democratic nomination for Virginia attorney general to Jay Jones. Taylor now joins nine other Democratic candidates hoping to take on longtime Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman in November for the chance to represent Virginia’s First Congressional District starting in 2026.
With a track record as a hardline prosecutor, Taylor was first elected to serve as Henrico’s commonwealth’s attorney in 2011 and has spent three terms in the role. She has run for statewide office twice — both times in the Democratic primary for attorney general. In 2021, facing Jones and Mark Herring, she withdrew from the race. She chose not to run in order to “focus on the critical issues happening in Henrico from criminal justice reform to addressing longstanding systemic racism in our society,” Taylor said, according to WWBT.
Herring won the nomination but lost the seat to Jason Miyares (who is now vying for reelection). Taylor’s loss to Jones in this year’s attorney general Democratic primary was a close one, with Jones edging Taylor with 51.5% of the votes to her 48.8%.
Taylor has set her sights on defeating Wittman, who has represented the 1st District since 2012, which spans from parts of Henrico, Hanover and Chesterfield Counties in Central Virginia to the Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula. There are over 471,000 registered voters in the district, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.
https://virginiamercury.com/2025/09/08/shannon-taylor-launches-bid-to-represent-virginias-1st-congressional-district/