Virginia Elections

Shannon Taylor touts her experience in run for Virginia attorney general

VPM | By Jahd Khalil

Published June 6, 2025 at 5:00 AM EDT

The longtime Henrico prosecutor is seeking the Democratic nomination this month.

Henrico County Commonwealth’s Attorney Shannon Taylor says Virginia voters should choose her to take on Republican incumbent Attorney General Jason Miyares in the fall. She’s running for the Democratic nomination against former Norfolk Del. Jay Jones.

Jahd Khalil of VPM News recently spoke to Taylor about her campaign. (He also interviewed Jones; read that interview here.)

Like Jones, Taylor said that she was concerned that Miyares was not challenging executive actions coming from Washington — but she thinks nearly 15 years of experience as Henrico's top prosecutor make her the ideal candidate to replace him.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Jahd Khalil: Why are you the best choice for Virginia Democrats in the primary?

Shannon Taylor: Voters, first and foremost, are looking for a fighter. They want someone to challenge the administration. They want someone to protect them.

Voters know that I talk about the breadth of my experience: having practiced law for almost 30 years, having that electability experience, winning four contested elections, that proven leadership — both running one of the larger commonwealth’s attorney's offices and in the courtroom.

They see that I have pushed back and gone against the klansmen who came into my county in 2020. They have seen that I was asked by a court to be the special prosecutor for one of the white supremacists who marched on the Lawn at the University of Virginia that Friday night of that terrible weekend of August 2017. They have seen me on the national stage speaking up for women's [reproductive] freedoms, when I said on the date of the Dobbs decision [that] I would never prosecute a woman and her doctor [for] engaging in that very personal reproductive decision.

How do you, as attorney general, protect reproductive rights right now?

Right now, Virginia is the last safe haven in the South for women to have reproductive protections. We know that our General Assembly has put forth a constitutional amendment for women's right to choose, and we are in the middle of that process. We will hopefully see that go again in January 2026, and then go to the voters in November of 2026.

It will be up to the attorney general to protect those constitutional amendments once they are, in fact, passed, because we realize that those are issues — automatic restoration of [voting] rights, marriage equality — there are some folks who want, may want to challenge those, and it's going to be up to the attorney general to protect those constitutional amendments.

The current attorney general and governor have been much more active in terms of talking about immigration. How do you see your role as AG when it comes to the immigration issue?

We recognize that there is a process in place for people who are coming to the United States who want to be citizens, and we have this system in place. The problem is, that system is broken.

We know that because we saw Congress — before the election in November of 2024 — come together and create a proposal to fix that process. And what happened? Then-candidate Donald Trump said “do not pass that bill,” because he wanted to run on that agenda. The result is that now we have a current administration who is ignoring that process and a strict violation of due process.

Every individual who is on this land of the United States gets the protections of the Constitution. The courts have said it: Due process is to be respected and to be followed before action is taken.

Canidate Taylor smiles as she leaves office — Henrico County Commonwealth's Attorney Shannon Taylor is one of the candidates for the Democratic nomination for attorney general in 2025.

You were one of the founders of a progressive group of commonwealth’s attorneys, and my understanding is that you're not in that anymore. A lot of the major reforms that group was proposing ended up happening. Do you think your approach to criminal justice has changed, and could you talk about why you left that group?

The criminal court system is supposed to be the same, wherever you are, so when we are looking at big issues — whether that be mandatory minimums, whether that be looking at bond and bail review — we need to make sure that we're doing that universally and equally across the state.

I supported the elimination of the death penalty. I supported the idea that we wanted to have more meaningful and robust review on determinations of whether or not an individual should be held or not held.

We also know that there are sometimes laws that are passed that I have supported the concept, but then when it comes to the actual implementation, we start to uncover issues regarding what I call the machinations of a bill.

The reason why I am no longer part of that [group] is because when I was going to take over as president of the prosecutors’ association in December of 2022, I needed to be able to say I was representing the entire association — all 120 elected officials.

There are a lot of data centers that are coming up in Virginia, and that could put a strain on the system. Climate change is obviously a big issue. How would you describe your approach to energy and affordability and climate?

Well, as the attorney general, I don't get to make the laws. But what I have been telling Virginians is that we need to figure out what it is that we want to do with technology.

We know that the data centers have two things: We know that there is a revenue resource, and we know that there is an impact on Mother Nature. We need to understand that there are some localities who believe very strongly in needing the revenue for their localities, because maybe they're suffering a deficit from other aspects of economic development.

But if we're going to go ahead and put these structures in that locality, there are contracts about how the vendors are going to build and how they're going to utilize a cooling system, to make sure that we are doing it in the best way to make the least environmental damage impact as possible.

What did we not talk about that is important for voters to know about you and your role [if elected] as attorney general?

Virginians need to understand that in this moment in time, the attorney general position is literally the most important statewide office. We must have somebody who is ready on day one to challenge to protect Virginians.

We also have to recognize that [with] what's happening with the [US] Department of Justice and the utility of the federal courts, there is a real need to perhaps look to the state courts to be able to implement some of these protections. And if you're going to be going to state courts and going to trial, who better than a trial attorney to be able to do that?