Tony Sabio went into Ukraine at the start of the war to bring out a 15-year-old boy. An hour-long candidate forum in his own district was never going to be the hard part. The hard part was getting Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA-8) to sit at the same table. The Democrat asking for a seventh two-year term skipped it.
The forum was put on by a coalition of local League of Women Voters groups. Sabio, the Republican nominee on the November 3, 2026 ballot, took his seat. So did Libertarian Shelly Arnoldi and independent Tim Sharman. Moderator Katherine Ingmanson of the League of Women Voters Fairfax Area told the room the hour would still help voters, “despite the missing incumbent.” ARLnow does not report why he stayed away.
Sabio sat for the full hour and took the questions. He called the SAVE Act’s voter rules “a 90/10 issue” and backed one federal ID to stop voting fraud. He wants schools run by local and state leaders, because “if you put anything in [the hands of] the federal government, it’s going to create a huge bureaucracy.” He backs term limits for Congress.
Then he told the room how to reach him. If he wins, Sabio will keep handing out his direct phone number, the way he does now on the campaign trail. Arnoldi said what the empty chair already showed: “He’s not accessible.” She and Sabio both said Beyer has grown too entrenched and distanced from his constituents.
In the Committee’s view, that is the whole race in one room. One candidate gives voters his cell number. The other did not give them an hour.
Sabio served as a CIA counterintelligence and counterterrorism officer. His job, he told the Virginia Mercury, was to “locate and dismantle terrorist organizations.” The Committee’s profile of Sabio tells the full story.
Beyer did show up to a September 8 debate at the Arlington County Civic Federation. That is where he said, “We need to shut down ICE,” and called the agency’s culture “irretrievably destroyed.” Sabio stood on the same stage and said, “We have to have accountability … but we cannot throw a whole system out.”
Translation: the Democrat who wants a seventh term would close the agency. The man who tracked down terrorists for a living would fix it.
On Thursday, October 1, Beyer had time for a Public Citizen protest at Memorial Circle against President Trump’s arch. “We are faced with a great sacrilege,” he said. “The Trump arch is illegal.” In the Committee’s view, a congressman who can stand at a microphone for a protest can sit at a table for his voters.
Beyer skipped the forum. He rallied against the arch. He demanded the FAA suspend a new air traffic tool at Reagan National the day it went live. He chaired Congress’s Joint Economic Committee while inflation hit 9.1%. He said shut down ICE.
Tony Sabio went into Ukraine in 2022 to bring out one boy. A forum table in his own district is easy by comparison, and he brought his phone number with him. On Tuesday, November 3, 2026, the ballot in the 8th District reads Sabio or Beyer. One of them showed up.