A new Republican challenger is taking on incumbent Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA).
Anthony “Tony” Sabio bills himself as a “battle-tested patriot” instead of a career politician in the fight for Virginia’s 8th Congressional District. The Puerto Rican native comes from a U.S. military, Secret Service, and CIA background, and, settling in northern Virginia after his time in the Marines, he now wants to serve in another way — focusing on the economy, national security, and public defense.
“There’s a lot of people out there asking for true leadership to emerge,” Sabio said. “I want to put people before politics.”
Sabio, whom Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) contacted to help put his campaign together, says his policies are specifically geared toward strengthening the economy and making the community safe. Virginia’s 8th District covers Alexandria, Arlington, Falls Church, and eastern parts of Fairfax County.
The Washington Examiner asked Sabio about Arlington County recently ending its police department’s ability to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in local arrests. Sabio pledged that, when he is in office, law enforcement will be working with ICE and Tom Homan, President Donald Trump’s border czar.
“We’re going to find criminals, we’re going to pull them out,” Sabio said. “We’re going to make sure that the Board of Supervisors are held accountable.”
“I can tell you right now, working with law enforcement in the Secret Service, also in the agency, we have MS-13, we have many other gangs sitting right here in this area,” Sabio said. “We just found a leader from Tren de Aragua sitting right here in northern Virginia. We’re able to catch him, deport him.”
When it comes to the economy, Sabio exclusively broke down three top issues to the Washington Examiner during the Road to Majority Conference.
First, he wants to help northern Virginians accomplish the American dream of owning a home. He also wants to create incentives for medical personnel, law enforcement, and the fire department to live in their county.
“They’re having to work in certain areas and then travel about two hours in traffic,” Sabio said. “I want housing to be reduced for them. I want to work with the governor’s office to create incentives for them.”
Sabio wants to work with the Department of Housing and Urban Development to create opportunities for low-income housing.
“I also want to have builders come in and build more affordable housing,” Sabio said. “But we got to do it smart. First, we got to create jobs. Once we create the jobs, then we need to go ahead and start rebuilding those communities.”
The second way Sabio wants to improve Virginia’s economy is by bringing back industries. He wants to put a stop to companies pledging to go to different states.
“I’m going to work hard to look at the national defense industries, such as medical supplies, chips, and make sure that comes over here,” Sabio said. “We start working to help out the federal workers that were laid off. Now find real, true jobs that strengthen national defense.”
Third, Sabio wants to help continue to implement Trump’s economic policies in his district.
“Donald Trump has built our economy,” Sabio said. “The Democrats, especially Don Beyer, is hell-bent on destroying everything that Donald Trump has put together.”
The Republican says the record of his Democratic counterpart is what has inspired him to run.
“Don Beyer, sorry to say, he’s a used car salesman,” Sabio said. “Don Beyer, he’s been a disgrace, a disgrace for northern Virginia and actually a disgrace for the whole country. He does partisan politics, and all he cares about is special interests.”
As a father, he places a high priority on education and keeping children safe. He made an unsuccessful run for a Fairfax County School Board seat back in 2023. When his opponent, Karl Frisch, refused to debate, Sabio held “fireside chats” where he discussed being a foster parent to an at-risk child and growing up in poverty. When it comes to how he can continue his passion to help children while in Congress, Sabio told the Washington Examiner that school choice is a solution for school safety and funding problems.
“We need to start taking politics out of the schools now,” Sabio said. “The biggest thing is they don’t listen. The schools just don’t care. But they care when they start getting hit in the pocketbook. As taxpayers, they work for us. We’re going to push a big incentive for school choice.”
“That school choice is going to allow parents to go more to private schools,” he continued. “Public schools are going to have to come to the table and say, ‘What are we doing? We’re losing funding. We’re losing money.’”
Sabio and Youngkin met together after Virginia’s Republican governor gave a speech at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority Conference in Washington, D.C.
“I’m very excited the governor’s office reached out to us,” Sabio said. “We’re going to talk about ways where we could work together, talk about the real issues that are happening and then really look at the next governor coming in.”
Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears is currently running for the governorship, as Youngkin is term-limited. Sabio believes the commonwealth will get behind Sears, and he looks forward to working with her.
“Gov. Sears is a Marine. I come from the Marine Corps as a hospital corpsman,” Sabio said. “We have a lot in common right there. We want to bring together more of a servant leadership.”
The battle over locker room access, school sports, and transgender ideology is a contentious one in Virginia. Even though Youngkin and Trump have enacted executive orders to keep girls safe in the most private of places, men claiming to be women are still allowed in school locker rooms. Most recently, a biological male, who is also a registered sex offender, was arrested on charges of exposing himself to young girls in the Washington Liberty High School locker room.
Despite several parents complaining, Richard Kenneth Cox was allowed to access the pool locker room during swim classes because he claimed to be a woman. Cox was finally arrested months later when he was caught allegedly sexually assaulting a young girl. The 58-year-old is currently in jail on 28 charges ranging from indecent exposure to indecent liberties with a minor. Sabio wants to stop this from happening again.
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“Any additional incentives from the federal government will be cut if you are not giving the parents what they want,” Sabio said. “If you’re not protecting the females in school, in the bathrooms, in sports, then no more funding for you. That’s what President Trump has pushed for, and that’s what I’m gonna push.”
Sabio will compete against Heerak Christian Kim, who has unsuccessfully run for the seat in the last four elections, for the Republican primary. The primary date has yet to be set.