Arlington Republicans are setting their sights on the 2027 Commonwealth’s Attorney race amid an ongoing dispute between the county’s police union and its top prosecutor.
It’s been decades since the GOP has fielded a candidate in that particular race. However, local Republican chair Matthew Hurtt has joined the Arlington Coalition of Police in sharply criticizing Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti following a Pentagon City homicide.
Though still nearly three years out — and, as always, vastly outnumbered by Democrats in Arlington — Hurtt sees a possible opportunity in 2027.
“The Arlington GOP is laser-focused on giving voters a choice in every election — including in the off-off-year elections in 2027,” he told ARLnow.
Hurtt and the Arlington County Republican Committee used their X accounts and other means of communication in recent days to blast Dehghani-Tafti for her office’s handling of an earlier case involving 23-year-old Leonardo Reyes.
Reyes is now facing charges including second-degree murder and aggravated malicious wounding following a stabbing attack on a woman and toddler near the Pentagon City Target on Dec. 14.
Arlington police have described the incident as domestic in nature. The deceased victim has been identified as 26-year-old Iman Gay of Arlington, who died in the hospital on Dec. 30. The child was discharged from the hospital on Dec. 23.
A second child was with Gay at the time of the incident, but was uninjured, police said.
Reyes previously spent about a year and a half in jail and then went on probation after pleading guilty to attempting to rob a CVS store in Crystal City in 2021.
Hurtt joined Arlington’s police union calling the plea deal too lenient.
“Arlington’s lawless Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti likely could have prevented this senseless attack, but her commitment to far-left, pro-criminal policies continues to cloud her judgment and leave Arlingtonians without safe recourse through our legal system,” he wrote in an email to local Republicans.
“YOUR opportunity to defeat the radical left and Make Arlington Great Again (MAGA) is within reach!” the Arlington GOP said in another email, on Monday. “Arlington Republicans haven’t had an opportunity like this since President Reagan was in the White House.”
The Reyes case has also attracted the attention of Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares (R), who posted on X, “A young girl is now without her mother, all because far-left woke prosecutors continue to put violent criminals first and victims dead last.”
Dehghani-Tafti defended the plea agreement reached in connection with the 2021 incident, telling ARLnow in December that “the specific facts of this case supported dismissing the firearms charges.”
She said the Arlington Coalition of Police was either missing key information about the case, or was misrepresenting the matter.
“Take what they say with a grain of salt, given their political activity against me,” she said at the time.
According to court documents, the weapon in question during the 2021 incident was an Atak Arms Stalker 9mm pistol, which resembles a real handgun but is designed to shoot blanks. Had Reyes pleaded or been found guilty of a gun charge, he would have faced a minimum three-year sentence on top of any other prison time.
Hurtt specifically mentioned the positions of Commonwealth’s Attorney and county sheriff, also on the ballot in 2027, as races the Republican Committee plans to focus on.
“Anyone — Republican, Democrat or independent — who is interested in helping us identify and support candidates to make significant policy changes in Arlington should reach out to us,” he said.
Dehghani-Tafti narrowly defeated two-term incumbent Commonwealth’s Attorney Theo Stamos in the 2019 Democratic primary, then was unopposed in the general election. Four years later, she defeated Josh Katcher in the Democratic primary, and again was unopposed in the ensuing general election.
Dehghani-Tafti was one of a trio of Democratic progressive prosecutors elected in 2019 across Northern Virginia, along with Steve Descano in Fairfax County and Buta Biberaj in Loudoun.
In the Arlington Democratic primary races in both 2019 and 2023, leaders of the Republican committee advised party members that casting ballots — presumably for Stamos and Katcher, respectively — could cause problems should they later wish to take part in GOP activities at the state or national levels.
(Because Virginia law does not register voters by political party, anyone is allowed to take party in primaries, which are run by the state government.)
The local GOP emphasis on law enforcement mirrors a similar focus during the 2024 presidential race, as now president-elect Donald Trump cast himself as the candidate of law and order following a pandemic-era increase in crime nationally.
While 2027 may be a while off, both Republicans and Democrats have begun gearing up for Arlington’s 2025 election season, when a County Board seat, School Board seat and three Arlington seats in the House of Delegates will be on the ballot.
Democrats will hold their first meeting of the year on Jan. 8, with a number of candidate announcements expected, and Republicans are conducting a strategy session on Jan. 11 featuring state party chair Rich Anderson.
The last Republican to serve as Commonwealth’s Attorney was Henry Hudson, who gained the nickname “Hang-em-High Henry” for a tough-on-crime stance following his election in 1979.
Hudson left office in 1986 after being appointed by Ronald Reagan to serve as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. He later was tapped by George H.W. Bush to serve as a U.S. District Court judge for the Eastern District.
Hudson’s two immediate successors as county prosecutor — Helen Fahey (1986-93) and Richard Trodden (1993-2011) — were Democrats, but did not engender opposition from Republicans.
When Trodden opted not to seek re-election in 2011, he backed his chief deputy, Stamos, for the post. She handily won that year’s Democratic primary against David Deane, and faced no opposition in the 2011 or 2015 general elections.
After her defeat in 2019, Stamos went to work for the U.S. Department of Justice, and currently serves as a deputy Virginia attorney general under Miyares.
She stays in touch with the Arlington legal scene, having in early November attended the annual luncheon and awards program of the Arlington County Bar Foundation.
