Henrico County Commonwealth’s Attorney Shannon Taylor announced Wednesday she will seek the Democratic nomination for Virginia attorney general, emphasizing her track record as a prosecutor in what is likely to be a competitive primary contest for the job now held by Republican Jason S. Miyares.
Virginia
Shannon Taylor, top Henrico prosecutor, launches Dem. bid for Virginia AG
“When it comes to protecting women’s rights and our children or standing up against hate, those aren’t just my positions,” she said. “I’ve actually taken on either cases or actions to demonstrate my commitment to those Democratic values.”
Taylor is the first candidate from either party to formally announce a bid for attorney general, one of three statewide offices in Virginia that will be on the ballot next year.
Former state delegate Jay Jones, a Norfolk trial attorney who lost the Democrats’ 2021 primary for attorney general, is widely expected to run for the position again in 2025 — with the backing of former governors Ralph Northam and Terry McAuliffe.
On the Republican side, Miyares has not yet announced whether he will run for reelection as attorney general or if he plans to seek the Republican nomination for governor, as some expect. (Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) is term-limited from running again for the job.)
Taylor, 56, is a lifelong Virginia resident who served as a prosecutor in Richmond, oversaw a regional grand jury and worked as criminal defense lawyer before running for her current post, becoming the first Democrat in years to win countywide in Henrico — a once-conservative area closely associated with former House Republican leader Eric Cantor.
She said that as commonwealth’s attorney, she hired more women and people of color to serve as prosecutors and ran her office through the lens of “compassionate accountability,” putting a greater focus on mental health and substance use issues.
“I do call myself a ‘progressive prosecutor,’” she said. “‘Progressive’ is to do things differently. That is exactly what I brought to that office and what I would continue to do if given the opportunity to move forward in a new role.”
But she said she did not hesitate to fight acts of hate, prosecuting a self-identified Ku Klux Klan leader who drove a truck through a crowd of Black Lives Matter protesters and then pushing state lawmakers to strengthen related hate crime legislation.
She has also been involved in a string of high-profile cases, recently serving as special prosecutor in Virginia’s case against one man who was accused of using a flaming torch during the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville to intimidate counterprotesters. The jury failed to reach a verdict in the case — the first test of a new state law meant to ban Ku Klux Klan cross-burnings — though it is expected to return to court this summer for additional proceedings.
Taylor has also previously said she is conducting a probe related to the 2023 death of Irvo Otieno, a Black man in mental distress who was asphyxiated in a Richmond-area hospital while being restrained by three workers and seven sheriff’s deputies.
The case is being prosecuted in nearby Dinwiddie County, where that incident occurred, but Otieno was brought to that facility from a Henrico hospital and then the county jail. The sheriff’s deputies who restrained him for 11 minutes, according to surveillance video, are all from Henrico.
Taylor also pointed to her experience in several statewide efforts, including as past president of the Virginia Association of Commonwealth’s Attorneys and on a working group that reviews legislation for the Virginia State Senate’s Courts of Justice Committee.