Shannon Taylor: Your Anti-Corruption Candidate

Our daily costs of living have soared since President Trump began his second term. No matter where you look in CD1 and beyond, someone is struggling to put food on the table, pay their utility bills, and/or afford their rent. Political corruption is a major culprit, and that’s why CD1 needs a representative who will fight to stop it.

Labor shortages, higher diesel prices, and cuts to SNAP funding increased grocery prices. Trump’s illegal Iran war drove up gas prices. Trump’s illegal tariffs, power company rate hikes, data center proliferation and federal suppression of clean/renewable energy projects increased our utility bills. Cuts to Medicaid and the expiration of ACA subsidies made healthcare coverage more expensive. No matter where you look, someone is paying far too high a price for basic necessities.

Higher costs are a big reason CD1 became a competitive seat and is why candidate Shannon Taylor stepped up to replace incumbent Rob Wittman. Building on her experience as a seasoned prosecutor, she intends to fight corruption and lower costs because Wittman enables Trump’s corruption and voted for tax breaks that benefit billionaires—and himself.

Wittman’s H.R. 1 vote created chaos and suffering

Wittman voted for H.R. 1, a law designed to take money from the poor and give it to the rich. In Rob Wittman’s Top 10 Disinformation Bombs, Wittman Watch explained how H.R. 1 shifted money from taxpayer-funded benefits to tax breaks for billionaires. H.R. 1’s broadest goal “was to extend tax cuts passed at Trump’s behest in 2017, by reducing benefit program expenditures (e.g. taking away SNAP and Medicaid)…” CBO projected that the lowest-income households would experience a $1,600 loss of resources per year between 2026 and 2034 while the highest-income households would increase by $12,000 per year, “attributable to reductions in the taxes households in that bracket owe.”

H.R. 1 is a big reason our paychecks don’t stretch as far as they used to. Wittman also ignores the ongoing housing affordability crisis. No matter who we are or where we work in CD1, he has failed to protect our interests.

“To lower costs, we must root out corruption”

We’re also having trouble making ends meet because of corruption at the federal level. End Citizens United named Rob Wittman as one of the Most Corrupt Politicians, in part because he “accepted a staggering $3.3 million in corporate PAC money over his career.” He cashes in on data center stocks while our utility bills skyrocket. Through his votes and other actions, he lets Trump’s corruption harm everyday Virginians. Wittman is part of the rampant political culture of self-enrichment. He prioritizes increasing his wealth and enriching his donors over the needs of his constituents.

In sharp contrast, Shannon Taylor is running on a robust anti-corruption platform. She wants to end the “culture of corruption in Washington that is driving up costs for Virginia families.” Toward that end, she pledged to:

Virginians, along with the rest of America, are sick of getting poorer while politicians like Trump and Wittman get richer. It doesn’t have to be this way. Nor should it be this hard just to get by. We need to get corruption out of politics so we can afford everything we need. That’s why Shannon Taylor is the right choice for CD1.