Steve Descano won his last election with nobody running against him. He is the Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney, the county’s top prosecutor. His office decides which cases get charged, pled down, or dropped.
The seat is on the ballot again on November 2, 2027. Here is the case that a Republican can beat him. It is built on his own record, one point at a time.
In November 2023, Descano had no opponent on the ballot. The Fairfax County Republican Committee backed a write-in campaign for Ed Nuttall instead.
A write-in has no printed name. Voters have to write it on the ballot by hand. Even so, Descano got just under 78%. More than one voter in five did not pick him.
His lawyers now show Congress that number as proof of his “wide margin.” It was a race with one name on the ballot.
Before that, in June 2023, defense attorney Ed Nuttall ran against Descano in the Democrat primary. Nuttall took 44.6% of the vote.
Read that number again. In his own party’s primary, nearly 45% of the voters wanted someone else.
On September 23, Brittany Dunn-Pirio announced she will challenge Descano in the June 2027 Democrat primary. She is a former state and federal prosecutor. She calls herself a lifelong Democrat.
Her reason, in her own words: “botched sexual assault cases, prosecutors missing deadlines, and victims not being spoken to.”
That is not a Republican talking. That is a Democrat telling her own party’s voters that his office botches cases.
The Committee has written about his record for years. It showed how he promised to help defendants avoid deportation. It showed how his office signed off on a passport for an accused killer, who then left the country.
On May 6, the U.S. Justice Department opened an investigation into Descano. It is looking at how his office handles plea deals, charges, and sentences. The question is whether people in the country illegally got better treatment than citizens.
The department says it has reached no conclusions.
On September 16, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) subpoenaed Descano. A subpoena is a legal order to hand over records. Jordan wants the cases where Descano’s staff followed his own written policies and “considered immigration consequences.”
Descano’s office calls it a “partisan siege.” His lawyers say they have already turned over more than 1,100 pages. Descano himself says his “policies are fair, legal, and reflect the values of my community.”
Stephanie Minter, 41, was found stabbed to death at a bus stop shelter in Hybla Valley on February 23, Fairfax County police said.
Abdul Jalloh, 32, is charged with second-degree murder. He has not been convicted. His trial is set for January 2027. The Department of Homeland Security says he entered the country illegally in 2012 and has more than 30 arrests.
Stephanie’s mother, Cheryl Minter, wrote a petition calling for Descano’s removal. “Thirty times the system had a chance to stop him. Thirty times,” she wrote.
She has been careful with what she does not know. She says the staff on her daughter’s case have been “wonderful with me.” Fox News reports that an earlier release she recalled has not been confirmed. Her anger is aimed at the choices she believes left a repeat offender free.
In 2019, Descano won the general election 61% to 38%. His opponent was an independent, not a Republican.
That was before the Justice Department opened its file. Before the subpoena. Before the petition. Before a Democrat prosecutor said his office botches cases.
Here is how the Fairfax County Republican Committee reads that record. The Democrat primary will run for nine months. Democrat money will be spent telling Democrat voters that his office is broken.
Either Descano reaches November carrying that charge from his own party. Or Democrats nominate someone who spent the spring making it.
In the Committee’s judgment, that makes Commonwealth’s Attorney the most winnable countywide race on the November 2, 2027 ballot.
The job is a four-year term, elected countywide. Descano’s term ends at the end of 2027.
If you are a licensed Virginia attorney who has practiced in the Fairfax courthouse, the Committee is asking you directly: run.
You do not need to have run before. Start at fairfaxgop.org/become-a-candidate. Email info@fairfaxgop.org. Or call 703-766-4467.
A June primary falls on the third Tuesday of the month. Candidate filings close 75 days before it, at the start of April 2027. Whatever method the party uses to pick its nominee, the candidate has to be found this winter.
He ran alone in 2023. He lost nearly 45% of his own primary voters that June. He drew a federal investigation in May and a subpoena in September.
The Committee’s job between now and April is to find the Republican whose name goes beside his. One way or another, Steve Descano is on the November 2, 2027 ballot.