NEW: In Closing Op-Ed, Shannon Taylor Writes That Both Parties Are Guilty of Corruption and Washington Needs Change

In the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Henrico’s top prosecutor lays out a first-term agenda to ban congressional stock trading, end the revolving door, and impose term limits

HENRICO, Va. — In a closing op-ed in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Henrico Commonwealth’s Attorney Shannon Taylor argues that Virginia families are falling behind because Washington politicians in both parties are looking out for themselves instead of the people they serve. Shannon lays out a plan to hold them accountable.

Taylor names Rep. Rob Wittman as part of the problem. During nearly 20 years in Congress, Rob Wittman’s personal wealth has grown as much as 40-fold as he traded up to $2.5 million in stocks, including shares of defense contractors while sitting on the House Armed Services Committee that oversees them. He violated the STOCK Act, the federal law meant to stop insider trading by members of Congress. He voted for an $80 billion tax break for data centers while owning stock in an energy giant cashing in on the data center boom. And with his vote for the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” he slashed healthcare funding for Virginians while voting himself a tax break of up to $60,000.

KEY QUOTES FROM SHANNON’S OP-ED:

• Ask any Virginian what keeps them up at night, and you’ll hear the same answer. Rising costs are suffocating Virginians.
• From the Northern Neck to Chesterfield to Williamsburg, I talk with families struggling with health insurance premiums that have shot up, and some who even had to drop their insurance altogether. They’re paying more than $4 a gallon for gas and $6 for diesel, and their grocery and utility bills keep climbing. Farmers are getting squeezed by tariffs and record-high diesel and high fertilizer prices. Three health clinics across Virginia have closed, and several rural hospitals are at risk. Our families are working harder than ever, yet falling further behind. It is clear as day that Washington is broken and not working for us.
• We need leaders in Congress who will take on that broken system and look out for us, not themselves. As Henrico County’s top prosecutor, I’ve spent the past nearly 15 years keeping our community safe. I have prosecuted murders, violent criminals and sex traffickers, and gone after fraudsters and scammers who prey on our most vulnerable. Under my leadership, we have seen a 90% homicide conviction rate here in Henrico County. Now, I’m running for Congress to hold Washington’s feet to the fire.
• Here’s the truth: corrupt politicians in Washington — from both parties — are getting rich, giving their donors tax breaks, and rigging the system in their favor while making our healthcare more expensive, driving up the costs of gas, and sending our tax dollars overseas to fund endless wars.
• Career politicians pretend to have our interests at heart, but too many of them have traded millions of dollars in stocks while having access to information the rest of us don’t have. While families sit at the kitchen table and make tough decisions about their budgets, politicians watch their net worth climb into the millions as they cash in on a taxpayer salary. They stay too long, and they get too comfortable.
• Our very own Congressman Rob Wittman has become part of the problem, having traded individual stocks nearly 300 times. I believe voters deserve stronger safeguards against conflicts of interest, including a ban on congressional trading in individual stocks.

Shannon then laid out her first-term agenda, which will include:

• Ban congressional stock trading. Members get market-moving briefings that few other Americans will ever see, and the current insider-trading rules are “riddled with loopholes” and almost never enforced.
• A lifetime lobbying ban. Members of Congress would be barred from cashing in as lobbyists for the corporations they regulated.
• Term limits. She will back a constitutional amendment limiting House members to 12 years and follow that limit herself whether or not it becomes law. “If you can’t solve the problem in 12 years — let alone 20 — give someone else a chance.”
• Mandatory jail time for politicians who steal taxpayer money. “No resignations to avoid accountability, no plea deals, no deferred judgment, and no special favors.”

Taylor also commits to ending the war in Iran, repealing cost-raising tariffs, and requiring data centers to pay for their own energy costs while giving communities the right to say no to their development.

“I am proud of my record keeping the people of Henrico safe as their prosecutor,” Taylor concludes. “I hope to have the privilege of fighting for your family and putting Washington corruption on trial as your Member of Congress.”

Read the full op-ed here.

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