Last year, Westmoreland County was introduced to Lisa Khanna, a challenger to Congressman Rob Wittman’s seat in the 1st Congressional District, a spot Wittman has comfortably occupied for over a decade. As it turns out, Khanna would not be the only one seeking to unseat the Montross native. Last Sunday, Shannon Taylor, the three-term Commonwealth’s Attorney for Henrico County paid a visit to Colonial Beach.

Taylor started her visit appearing at First Baptist Church during their Sunday services. She decided to gun for the district in September of 2025 after being beaten by Jay Jones for the Democrat nomination for Virginia attorney general. Much like Khanna, she is seeking to paint Wittman as a sort of “absentee congressman,” and spoke of a desire to serve more people beyond Henrico.

“My desire to go beyond my public service for Henrico is my desire to want to serve more and see what I could do to help more people,” Taylor stated. “When I lost the primary to Jones by less than two points, people talked about how they didn’t want to lose me, and looking at the news on the national stage, it wasn’t a heavy lift, because what I do as the Commonwealth’s Attorney in terms of protecting my constituents really translates into this federal position — protecting people from disastrous policies and actions happening in D.C. At the core of that is a trust in elected leadership. I earned the trust of Henrico County and several others over these last fifteen years, and now I’m asking for more people to trust me.” “I’m a prosecutor, fraud is a bad thing, and we want to go after it,” continued Taylor. “But the manner in which some of it was done wasn’t addressing the problem. We know we have people that want to trust the process, but if you are not keeping up with the promises you made, or see things happening that result in people getting harmed, then you need to step back and think. Thus, what I am suggesting to the voters is that Congressman Wittman hasn’t been keeping up with his promises.”

What Taylor was referring to in this case was Wittman voting to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill, along with, much like Khanna, perceived failures to listen to his constituents, citing the dozens of constituents that made a great deal of noise after Wittman did not appear in person at a town hall. Wittman had noted that he often hosts telephone town halls with the goal being mass communication.

“Farmers have been directly impacted by these tariffs. The direct impact has been on the farmers, who lost the obligations for their soybeans and corn to be bought. They’re now having to face larger costs for storage, fertilizer, and gas. Bankruptcy is a terrible word nobody likes to utter, but we’ve now got farmers starting to talk about bankruptcy and losing that generation. That is what I believe in — that when I tell people I can protect them, that they can trust me. I have a history of it.”

Taylor emphasized the importance of trust, something a lot of politicians on both side of the aisle fiind is in staggeringly short supply.

“I want to run for instilling trust and accountability to our elected leadership in D.C. We have to remember that we were a nation of the people, by the people, and for the people. We are a nation built on people voting for elected leadership that they believe are looking out for them.

“Healthcare and immigration are issues we’ve been talking about, and there’s still no answer in sight. Why is that? As a prosecutor, negotiations are something I regularly deal with. If both sides are unhappy, it’s because both of them have had to make concessions, and hopefully we’ve come up with a resolution that helps as many people as possible.”

Taylor, her husband, and campaign manager sat down at El Toro for lunch, paid a visit to Rio’s Custom Creations and took a tour through the downtown Colonial Beach area.