We can do better.
I’m Brittany Dunn-Pirio, a Fairfax County native and career prosecutor running to be the Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney. To me, justice means doing the right thing, even when it is hard. I’ve personally held a sobbing victim after securing a conviction in a felony sexual assault case, and picked up the phone to call a defense attorney after learning his client was not guilty of a felony and needed to get out of jail. I know what it takes to build an office that does right by people.
The office
What does a Commonwealth’s Attorney do?
Decisions we make
Most people don’t think about a prosecutor’s office until they need it: they’ve become the victim of a crime, or a loved one has been accused of one. The Commonwealth’s Attorney is Fairfax’s elected chief prosecutor: the person who decides how the county’s criminal cases are handled. A prosecutor decides whether to bring a charge, what to offer in a plea, and what to ask for at sentencing. The General Assembly writes the laws. The Commonwealth’s Attorney enforces them.
Who we answer to
Prosecutors represent the public. They speak to victims and guide them through the process. They also protect the rights of the accused by turning over all the evidence and actually listening to the defense.
The skill we need most
Knowing the law matters. So does knowing how to try a case. But the most important skill is listening to find out the truth and to make sure people feel heard.
Meet Brittany Dunn-Pirio
A career prosecutor protecting the vulnerable.
A Fairfax County native
I was raised in Vienna and attended Fairfax County Public Schools from kindergarten through twelfth grade. I grew up lifeguarding at Reston pools, learned how to salsa dance in Chantilly, and the bread pudding from Great American Restaurants is my favorite dessert. Today I live in the same Vienna house where I was brought home as a baby, with my husband Fernando and our rescue dog Poppy.
A tested prosecutor at every level
When I was a 20-year-old college student at Notre Dame interning in a Special Victims Unit, I decided to dedicate my career to protecting survivors of domestic violence and child sexual abuse. After graduating from W&L Law, I began my career clerking for a judge in Fairfax Circuit Court. I spent my entire legal career fighting for the people, as a Virginia Assistant Attorney General, as an Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney specializing in domestic violence and child sexual abuse cases, and as a federal prosecutor.
I’ve personally prosecuted everything from DUI to murder, practiced at every level of Virginia’s and Fairfax’s courts, including the Supreme Court of Virginia, and secured lengthy prison sentences for sexual and violent offenders, all without ever once requesting cash bail. For defendants who deserved a second chance, I’ve recommended treatment instead. I have the judgment and experience to recognize when the answer is accountability, when it is rehabilitation, and when it is a combination.
A prosecutor who answers to the people
As a federal prosecutor specializing in fraud and public corruption, I resigned when the Department of Justice’s independence was compromised. I couldn’t stomach propping up a system that gave pardons to the well-connected while prosecuting average Americans for the exact same conduct.
A lifelong Democrat
I’m a cradle Democrat: I volunteered for Al Gore at age nine, was president of College Democrats of Notre Dame, and I managed Del. Marcus Simon’s first campaign for the House of Delegates. Now, I’m a proud member of the Fairfax County Democratic Committee and served as the Vice Chair of Membership for Hunter Mill Democrats.
You shouldn’t have to choose between a justice system that’s fair and one that works. Right now in Fairfax, you’re getting neither.
Fairness and effectiveness are not opposites. We do not have to go backward to do better. Let’s keep our values, and raise the standard.
Why I’m running
Fairfax deserves an office that works.
If this office were doing its job, I wouldn’t be running against it. I’d be applying to work for it. But it isn’t.
I’m a Democrat. This race isn’t about whether reform was right. It’s about whether the office can tell the difference between a first-time nonviolent offender who deserves a second chance and a violent or sexual offender who doesn’t. It’s about whether deadlines are met, evidence is given to the defendant, and victims are spoken to.
I have spent too many years prosecuting to sit back and watch this office keep failing the people I care about.
I’m running to build the office that Fairfax deserves.
The record
Read the record yourself.
- NBC Washington · September 2026 Prosecutors gave driver who killed a pedestrian 20 hours of community service and no active jail time. Read the story (opens in a new tab)
- WJLA · March 2025 Democratic elected officials criticized the office for not prosecuting a Tier III sex offender who repeatedly exposed himself in women’s locker rooms. Read the story (opens in a new tab)
- WUSA9 · 2026 A man who sodomized an 11-year-old walked free on time served after prosecutors missed a court deadline. Three years later, he abducted a teenage girl. Read the story (opens in a new tab)
- FOX 5 DC · April 2022 A felony child abuse case involving a shaken baby was dismissed because the office had no prosecutor available for trial. The defendant had confessed. Read the story (opens in a new tab)
- The Washington Post · 2021 A judge told a sobbing child sex-abuse victim, “Your government has failed you,” after prosecutors offered a plea deal he called “woefully inadequate.” Read the story (opens in a new tab)
- FOX 5 DC · March 2026 Two homicide cases collapsed in a single week. Read the story (opens in a new tab)
- Fairfax Times · January 2026 The family of a murdered CEO learned about misconduct by a prosecutor on their case through the news, not from the office. Read the story (opens in a new tab)
- FFXnow · May 2026 Prosecutors pled a sexual attack on the W&OD Trail down to simple assault. Two weeks later, the man tried to abduct a 19-year-old woman. Read the story (opens in a new tab)
- Fairfax Circuit Court · July 2025 Prosecutors told the court a cat had “cuts on her head.” The defendant had severed her spine. The judge rejected the plea for misleading the court. Read the opinion (opens in a new tab)
This isn’t one bad day. It’s the norm. Here is how I will fix it.
The plan
Raising the standard in the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office.
I will bring to the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office the professionalism, structure, and specialized expertise that it sorely needs, so that it works for victims, for defendants, and for Fairfax. Here is where I will start:
Volunteer
Join Brittany’s team.
We’re going to win this campaign by neighbors talking to neighbors. Sign up, and we’ll be in touch.
