What a night. Republicans across the Commonwealth went to the polls on Tuesday and picked our fighters — and here in Fairfax, you could feel the energy.

Bert Mizusawa is our nominee for the United States Senate. A retired Army major general who spent his life in uniform, he made his case in every corner of this state, and Republicans answered. Congratulations, General — Fairfax is proud to stand with you. Now the real fight begins: on November 3, he faces Democrat Sen. Mark Warner, who has been in Washington since 2009. Ask Fairfax what all that seniority ever bought us — higher grocery bills, a heavier tax load, and a mortgage payment no incumbent ever rescued.

That frustration is not partisan. It is arithmetic. And it is why Republicans are contesting all three of Fairfax’s congressional districts this year. In the 8th, Navy veteran Tony Sabio takes on Rep. Don Beyer. In the 10th, Dave Beckwith won our nomination to challenge Rep. Suhas Subramanyam. And in the 11th, Arthur Purves — who has fought for this county’s taxpayers as president of the Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance for nearly three decades — will take on Rep. James Walkinshaw, who has voted with House Democrats nearly 100 percent of the time since his special election last September. Running as a Republican in Northern Virginia is not a résumé move. It is a conviction.

Here is what is at stake. Everything conservatives want over the next two years runs through one gate: holding our majorities in the U.S. House and Senate. Not narrowing them — holding them. Secure borders, a tax code a family can actually read, energy that keeps the bill down — every one of those needs members of Congress who will vote for them when the pressure comes. That is our standard in Fairfax: not “electable,” but principled — conservatives who will advance the President’s agenda on the hard votes, not just the easy ones.

Nobody hands you Northern Virginia — you earn it, precinct by precinct. Tuesday, we started earning it.

But nominees cannot do this alone, and they are not supposed to. Campaigns are won by neighbors — people who knock the doors, work the phones, and talk to the family two houses down that has never once been asked for their vote. So here is my ask: volunteer, join us at your district breakfast, and chip in — every dollar raised here stays in this fight.

Fairfax is not a lost county. It is an under-contested one. There is a difference, and November 3 is when we prove it.

— Katie Gorka, Chair, Fairfax County Republican Committee