Rep. Rob Wittman (R., Va.) is turning his opponent’s greatest asset on the campaign trail into a major liability with weeks to go until Election Day.
In a new ad, obtained exclusively by the Washington Reporter, Wittman makes a bold claim, similar to what he told the Reporter in an earlier interview: “Shannon Taylor’s radicalism gets people hurt.”
Wittman’s opponent, the commonwealth’s attorney for Henrico County, prominently touts her role as the “top prosecutor” for her county, but Wittman’s new ad focuses on one of her office’s biggest failures, in which she “personally negotiated a plea agreement under which the Commonwealth would seek no more than three years of active incarceration,” his campaign alleges.
In the case at issue, a NICU nurse, Erin Strotman, “forc[ed] infants’ limbs outside their normal range of motion and shift[ed] her body weight onto them while they exhibited signs of pain,” Wittman’s campaign claimed.“The neonatal intensive care unit,” the ad’s narrator says. “Babies clinging to life. It should be a safe place. But at Henrico Hospital, a twisted nurse did the unthinkable: TV news said ‘fractured arms, legs, ribs, and bruising on their bodies.’”
The ad is all about the Strotman case, in which “Taylor and her progressive policies dismissed concerns about a nurse who harmed babies, letting her go back to work where she abused more innocent victims,” Wittman’s campaign told the Reporter.
“She got caught, but then progressive prosecutor Shannon Taylor’s office let her go back to work,” the ad continues. “Then, four more babies got hurt. Shannon Taylor’s radicalism gets people hurt.”
“Every voter in Virginia’s 1st District deserves to see [this information] before casting a ballot,” Wittman’s campaign said. “When premature babies suffered horrific injuries in the Henrico Doctors’ Hospital NICU, the office led by Shannon Taylor made decisions that raise serious questions about her judgment and accountability.”
“These were not minor injuries,” the campaign added. “Multiple babies suffered fractures to their arms, legs and ribs. One infant was preparing to leave the NICU when doctors discovered fractures including both femurs, both tibias, both radii, and multiple ribs.”
According to Wittman’s campaign, “Taylor’s office was involved long before Strotman was charged. In 2023, four babies in the same NICU suffered unexplained fractures,” it explained. “Investigators concluded that the injuries were non-accidental, and Child Protective Services made a ‘Founded, Level 1 for physical abuse’ finding. Because investigators could not identify a perpetrator beyond a reasonable doubt, no criminal charges were brought at that time.”
“Taylor’s office also chose not to charge anyone at the hospital over its delayed report to Child Protective Services,” his campaign added. “Instead, the office reached an agreement requiring cameras and child-abuse reporting training. Taylor later acknowledged that those measures did not prevent the harm from happening again.”
Wittman himself told the Reporter that Taylor’s failures in the NICU nurse case are part of a broader pattern that she has exhibited during her nearly two decades in office.
“This was not one bad decision,” Wittman said. “It was a pattern of failed judgment with devastating consequences. Four premature babies suffered unexplained fractures. When the hospital asked whether Shannon Taylor’s office objected to the nurses returning, her office answered ‘no objection at all.’”
“Strotman returned, and more babies were hurt, including one infant who suffered fractures throughout all four limbs, a hand and multiple ribs,” Wittman continued. “When Strotman later faced 20 criminal charges, Taylor personally negotiated them down to nine Class 6 felonies and capped active incarceration at three years, the equivalent of four months for each baby she abused. Then Taylor called the result ‘a win.’ It was not a win for those babies, their parents or public safety. Voters should judge Shannon Taylor by that record before entrusting her with a seat in Congress.”
