JAHD KHALIL: Why are you the best choice for Virginia Democrats in the primary?

SHANNON TAYLOR: You know, voters first and foremost are looking for a fighter.

They want someone to challenge the administration.

They want someone to protect them.

And when voters know that I talk about either the breadth of my experience, having practiced law for almost 30 years, having that electability experience, winning four contested elections every time against a Republican opponent, that proven leadership both running one of the larger Commonwealths Attorneys Offices and having that managerial experience and providing a positive work environment or that proven leadership in the courtroom, they see that I have pushed back and gone against the Klansmen who came into my county in 2020.

They have seen that I was asked by a court to be the special prosecutor for one of the white supremacists who marched on the lawn at the University of Virginia that Friday night of that terrible weekend of August 2017.

They have seen me on the national stage, you know, speaking up for women's reproductive freedoms.

When I said on the date of the Dobbs decision, I would never prosecute a woman and her doctor engaging in that very personal reproductive decision.

JAHD KHALIL: How do you, as attorney general, protect reproductive rights?

Abortion, contraception, all those sort of things for Virginians?

SHANNON TAYLOR: We know that right now, Virginia is the last safe haven in the South for women to have reproductive protections.

We know that our General Assembly has put forth a constitutional amendment for the women's right to choose.

And we are in the middle of that process.

We will hopefully see that go again in January 2026, and then go to the voters in November of 2026, and that it will be up to the Attorney General to protect those constitutional amendments once they are, in fact, passed.

Because we realize that those are- those are issues, automatic restoration of rights, marriage equality there are some folks who want may want to challenge those, and it's going to be up to the attorney general to protect those constitutional amendments.

JAHD KHALIL: Current attorney general and the current governor have been much more active in terms of, you know, talking about immigration and that sort of thing.

How do you see your role as attorney general when it comes to the immigration issue?

SHANNON TAYLOR: We recognize that there is a process in place for people who are coming to the United States who want to be citizens, and we have the system in place.

The problem is that system is broken.

And we know that because we saw Congress before the election in November of 2024, come together, come and create a proposal to fix that process.

And what happened?

Then candidate Donald Trump said, do not pass that bill because he wanted to run on that agenda and a strict violation of due process.

Every individual who is on this land of the United States gets the protections of the Constitution.

And the courts have said it, which is due process is to be respected and to be followed, and allow individuals to make their argument before action is taken.

JAHD KHALIL: So you were one of the founders of a progressive group of Commonwealths attorneys and my understanding is that you're not in that anymore.

You know, a lot of the major reforms that that group was proposing ended up happening.

Can you talk about why you left that group and, you know, if there's sort of different approaches that you're taking?

SHANNON TAYLOR: The Court system, the criminal court system, is supposed to be the same wherever you are.

And so when we are looking at big issues, so whether that be the issues of mandatory minimums, whether that be looking at our reform on how individuals are given bond and bail review, we need to make sure that we're doing that from a standpoint that's going to be used universally and equally across the state.

I supported the elimination of the death penalty.

I supported the idea that we wanted to have more meaningful and robust review on determinations of whether or not an individual should be held or not held.

We also know that there are sometimes laws that are passed that I have supported the concept but then when it comes to the actual implementation, we start to uncover issues regarding what I call the machinations of a bill.

And the reason why I am no longer part of that is because when I was going to take over as president of the Prosecutors Association that December of 2022, I knew that I needed to be able to say I was representing the entire association.

All 120 elected officials.

And then since that time have been concentrating, of course, on my own efforts to run for attorney general.

JAHD KHALIL: You know, there's lots of data centers that are coming up in Virginia.

So that's maybe going to put a strain on the system.

Climate change is obviously a big, big issue.

How would you describe your approach to energy and affordability, climate, all those sorts of topics?

SHANNON TAYLOR: Well, certainly as the AG, I don't get to make the laws, but what I have been telling Virginians is that just like I said about, you know, in response to your earlier question, we need to figure out what it is that we want to do with technology.

And Virginia has become this place where those data centers, to achieve those goals of utility that is now part of our daily lives and part of our habits we know that the data centers have two things.

We know that there is a revenue resource, and we know that there is an impact on Mother Nature.

And so we need to understand that there are some localities who believe very strongly in needing the revenue for their localities, because maybe they're suffering a deficit from other aspects of economic development.

But if we're going to go ahead and put these, put these structures in that locality, there are contracts about how the vendors are going to build and how they're going to utilize a cooling system.

And if they are opting for one particular system, whether it be water or energy, to make sure that we are doing it in the best way to make the least environmental damage impact as possible.

JAHD KHALIL: We talked about a lot of things because the attorney general's office is really broad.

What did we not talk about that is important for voters to know about you and your role as attorney general?

Your current role as Commonwealth's Attorney in Henrico, when they pick their nominee?

SHANNON TAYLOR: In this moment in time, the attorney general position is literally the most important statewide office.

We must have somebody who's ready on day one to challenge to protect Virginians.

We also have to recognize that as this current administration, at the White House and what's happening with the Department of Justice and the utility of the federal courts, that there is a real need to, perhaps, look to the state courts to be able to implement some of these protections.

And if you're going to be going to state courts and going to, you know, going to trial, who better than a trial attorney to be able to do that?