Fairfax County’s lone Republican lawmaker will campaign for reelection next year.
Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity announced plans at last month’s Fairfax GOP convention to seek a sixth term on the county’s Board of Supervisors, potentially extending a tenure that began nearly two decades ago.
“I’m not ready to give up on Fairfax County,” Herrity told FFXnow. “I feel like I am having a positive impact for the residents. I do enjoy helping people, and this job gives you the opportunity to help a lot of people.”
First elected in 2007, Herrity has long championed lowering taxes, increasing funding for law enforcement and addressing panhandling across the county, among other initiatives.
“Most of what we do at the local level is not about Republican versus Democrat. It’s about common sense,” Herrity said. “That’s the only way I get reelected — not because I’m a Republican or I’m a Democrat, but it’s because I’m for common sense.”
He expects many of those topics to be on the table in the future, as well as concerns about the county’s housing supply, affordability and more.
“More people have left Fairfax County than come to Fairfax County in the last five years,” Herrity said. “We are taxing our seniors out of the county [and] our young people can’t afford to locate here. Despite the good crime numbers we have, our residents don’t feel safe. We need to address all those, and I’m going to continue to fight to address those.”
Herrity also attributed his decision to seek another term to frustrations with the local judicial system, which has drawn headlines after an undocumented resident with more than 30 prior arrests but only one conviction that led to prison time was charged with murder in the Feb. 23 stabbing of Fredericksburg resident Stephanie Minter at a Hybla Valley bus stop.
“Releasing repeat violent offenders back into our community or not prosecuting repeat violent offenders — somebody needs to be shouting that from the hilltops and making change happen,” Herrity said. “It’s not good for our residents, whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, or an immigrant — legal or illegal. That’s common sense.”
“For us to ignore that, or not do something about it, that [might happen] if I’m not here,” he added. “[It might] get ignored.”
Herrity, who bowed out of last year’s lieutenant governor’s race due to health issues, says any problems with his heart have since been “medically corrected.” He has also stepped away from his “regular job” working in finance for government contracting firms, a move that he says has “reduced the stress.”
“I feel like I have got more than enough energy and time to put into representing the residents of the Springfield District and Fairfax County,” Herrity said.
Each of the board’s 10 seats will be up for election next fall, including the chairmanship. None of the other nine incumbents have publicly announced whether they plan to run for reelection.
As of today (Monday), however, one of the nine has apparently filed the paperwork to seek another term, according to campaign finance records: Dranesville District Supervisor Jimmy Bierman, who would be running for his second term after he was first elected in 2023.
All 10 seats on the Board of Supervisors will be on the ballot in November 2027, along with the Fairfax County School Board, commonwealth’s attorney and sheriff. Though a specific filing deadline has not yet been announced, potential candidates will have until early next year to formally declare their candidacy for election.
