Tony Sabio told the Virginia Mercury this month that his job as a CIA counterintelligence and counterterrorism officer was to “locate and dismantle terrorist organizations,” from Afghanistan and Iraq to South America. The Republican nominee in Virginia’s 8th Congressional District now wants a different target: a Congress that, in his words, “has lost the ability to understand that they work for the people, not the other way around.”

He is running against Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA-8), who was elected in 2014 and is asking voters for a seventh term.

“It Was Never About Myself”: A Career Spent Finding People Who Did Not Want to Be Found

The Mercury describes the Lorton resident as a security expert who served in the U.S. military, the Secret Service and the CIA, the record the Committee introduced in August. The interview fills in what the work actually looked like.

After the agency, he built a security consultancy, the Rockfinn Group, that plans overseas rescues for clients including ABC News, and in 2022 he went into Ukraine at the start of the war and brought out a 15-year-old boy. He told People magazine at the time that declining the mission “just wasn’t an option,” the Mercury recounts, and after the October 7, 2023 attacks he ran a ground operation in Gaza gathering intelligence on where Israeli hostages were being held.

“It’s not politics. It’s not right side, left side. They’re all Americans.”

Tony Sabio, to the Virginia Mercury

“Everything I’ve done has been focused on solving issues,” he told the Mercury. “It was never about myself. It was always about ‘what can we do to solve these issues to accomplish the mission.’ That’s the same thing I’d bring to Congress.” Until this summer he was also Purcellville’s interim Town Manager, where he presented the town’s proposed FY2027 budget and a multi-year plan to fix its utilities.

His Plan: A Northern Virginia That Stops Flinching Every Time Washington Shuts Down

Sabio’s economic case is built for a region that lives and dies by the federal payroll. He wants a bigger private sector anchored in manufacturing. “So when the federal government plays its games and shuts down, it doesn’t affect Northern Virginia as hard,” he said. A furloughed federal worker gets the back pay eventually, he added, but for 60 days “you’re gonna tighten up the belt,” and the small businesses that depend on that paycheck take the hit with nobody to make them whole.

The rest of his “Promise for America,” as the Mercury lays it out: small modular nuclear reactors to power the data centers already here, with Virginia as an exporting “nuclear grid node”; tax incentives for small business owners; more funding for law enforcement, including immigration enforcement; and a health care fix that keeps protections for preexisting conditions without pushing families into “one-size-fits-all” Medicare.

Beyer Wants to “Shut Down ICE.” Sabio Wants Accountability Without Throwing Out the System.

The contrast was on stage September 8 at an Arlington County Civic Federation forum covered by ARLnow. Asked about Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Beyer said, “We need to shut down ICE,” and called the agency’s culture “irretrievably destroyed.”

“We have to have accountability … but we cannot throw a whole system out.”

Tony Sabio, September 8 forum, per ARLnow

On the proposed memorial arch near Arlington National Cemetery, Beyer’s one-word verdict was “stupid.” Sabio gave the standard he applies to any federal dollar: “If it doesn’t return investment to the people, I will not support it.” On AI and the data centers behind it: “We should not be scared of technology.”

Beyer “says a lot of things,” Sabio told the Mercury, but “nothing he does is for Northern Virginia.” Beyer’s spokesperson declined to comment.

The Mercury Calls It Uphill. He Has Walked Steeper Ground on Purpose.

The 8th District covers all of Arlington, part of eastern Fairfax County, and the cities of Alexandria and Falls Church. Beyer has won it comfortably every cycle since 2014, the Mercury notes in the interview as carried by WTOP, and calls Sabio’s objective “uphill.”

Fairfax Republicans have kept Beyer’s record on the page. He chaired Congress’s Joint Economic Committee while inflation hit 9.1%. He said ICE’s culture is “irretrievably destroyed.” He called the arch “stupid.” His office declined to answer his challenger.

The Committee’s view: a man who walked into Ukraine and Gaza on purpose does not need the odds explained to him. Early voting is open now, and on November 3, 2026, Don Beyer has to run against him.