Tuesday, Sept. 22, congressional candidate Shannon Taylor held a campaign rally with Virginia Delegate Jessica Anderson in Commonwealth Auditorium at the College of William and Mary.
Shannon Taylor currently serves as Henrico County’s commonwealth attorney. She is running in the midterm elections as the Democratic nominee for Virginia’s 1st Congressional District against Republican incumbent Rob Wittman.
Anderson outlined why she believes it is important to elect Democrats to Congress, specifically pointing to food assistance and Medicaid cuts under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act as an example.
“We need to make sure that there are no more atrocities happening, domestic or foreign, from this administration without checks and balances coming out of Congress,” she said.
Anderson touched on the ongoing war in Iran, which is approaching its seventh month.
“We are in a war of choice because Israel has tricked our incompetent administration into joining a war,” she said. “Now, we are sitting here fighting for a reason that’s unknown to anyone.”
Anderson mentioned the statewide constitutional amendments on the ballot, which will allow voters to decide whether to embed reproductive rights, marriage equality and automatic felon voter restoration into the Constitution of Virginia. She encouraged attendees to vote yes on all of them.
Taylor then began by touching on the crowded August primary to determine the Democratic nominee for Virginia’s 1st Congressional District. Taylor said she hoped those who voted for other candidates during the primary would consider supporting her.
Taylor attacked Wittman, arguing he has used his public office to enrich himself by trading stocks.
“His wealth has gone up 40 times,” she said. “He’s been trading that stock at $2.5 million worth.”
Taylor touched on the Iran war, which she said she was against.
“We have no way out,” Taylor said. “We have servicemen and women who have been killed in this war.”
Taylor mentioned affordability. She said she would support reversing the Trump administration’s tariffs that she argues have increased costs for Americans.
Taylor added that she is working to bring anyone she can into her coalition, regardless of political affiliation.
“When I’m in the rooms with individuals, people who call themselves independents, moderate Republicans, we are letting them know that there is an option and there is a choice [to vote for the Democrat],” she said.
The event transitioned to an open questions portion from the audience. Attendees submitted questions beforehand via a Google Form. Grace Carryer ’27, president of the College’s Young Democrats organization, selected and read the questions.
The first question asked Taylor whether she supported campaign finance reform. Taylor said she would support changing the United States’ campaign finance system if elected to Congress.
“For this campaign, I’m not taking any corporate [political action committee] money,” she said. “I have said I will not take any corporate PAC money while I’m serving you in Congress.”
Taylor has received corporate PAC money in the past, something she did not address. During Taylor’s 2025 run for commonwealth attorney general, her campaign received $800,000 in donations from Dominion Energy, the commonwealth’s largest utility corporation.
The next question asked Taylor what she would do to end the ongoing violence in Palestine and whether she had any plans to visit the Gaza Strip or the occupied West Bank if elected to Congress.
Taylor declined to state her stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict or whether she would visit the Gaza Strip or the occupied West Bank.
“I don’t want to get into any particular rhetoric for this evening because in order to solve these issues, it requires having people at the table that I personally don’t want to alienate,” she said.
Taylor said she believes in foreign policy that supports peace in the Middle East.
“I want to be part of a conversation that will end this war, and I want to be part of a conversation that respects the Palestinian people with Israelis,” she said.
An attendee then stood up and interrupted Taylor, criticizing her response. The attendee said Taylor should be “ashamed” and that she had “blood on her hands” as they walked out.
The next question asked about academic freedom, which Taylor said she would seek to protect at the College.
Carryer then asked Taylor whether she would support Medicare For All if elected to Congress. Taylor did not address the question but said she supported protecting Medicare, Medicaid and access to affordable healthcare.
“When I talk about a broken healthcare system, it is not something that’s going to happen overnight,” she said.
Ava Saunders ’29, treasurer of the College’s Young Democrats, attended the event. She said she hoped to get more students registered to vote in VA-01 before the election.
“I’m from Northern Virginia, so I feel like my vote matters a lot more in Williamsburg,” she said. “I’m trying to get that across to my friends and also other people in the club.”
Saunders acknowledged that many students at the College may not have voted for Taylor in the August Democratic primary.
“I think those tensions have migrated to this event,” she said. “As you could see, there’s some people who might be choosing to vote for the Democratic candidate who weren’t necessarily happy with how the primaries turned out.”
Saunders said that, despite the primary results, she felt it was important to rally behind the Democratic nominee in the lead-up to the general election.
“At the end of the day, I’m gonna support whoever I think can make the most change in the district,” she said. “And I think a lot of students feel the same way, even if Shannon wasn’t who they voted for.”
Charles McDaniel ’27 also attended the event. He said he had supported Salaam Bhatti in the Democratic primary, who placed second to Taylor, and came to the campaign rally to learn more about Taylor’s policy platform.
McDaniel said he left the rally disappointed in what he saw as Taylor’s lack of a clear, policy-driven vision. He said he hoped Taylor would have shared a stronger message in support of the Palestinian people.
“I’m a single-issue voter at this point for liberation of the Palestinian people,” he said.
McDaniel also said he felt Taylor gave unclear answers when addressed with questions from the audience.
“I think that Americans are getting more and more attuned to what deflecting sounds like,” he said. “I’m really just tired of being treated like an idiot by politicians.”
Carryer commented on the event afterward by email. They said they decided to select the questions they asked Taylor after discussing with her campaign.
“I negotiated a format that would protect Shannon from media soundbites while still holding her accountable to the hard questions young folks have right now,” they wrote.
Carryer also said they were not satisfied with Taylor’s response to the question about Palestine.
“As a pro-Palestine and anti-genocide advocate, I don’t think Shannon gave an answer on Palestine,” they wrote. “She didn’t commit to change on financial/military support to Israel or call the violence what it is — colonial and genocidal.”
The Flat Hat reached out to the Shannon Taylor Campaign for clarification about her stance on Palestine but received no response.
