In 2011, he ran for the Virginia Senate as a Republican, losing to Democrat Dick Saslaw; after the election, Sarvis switched to the Libertarian Party.

[4] In his senior year at Thomas Jefferson, Sarvis placed fourth in the 1994 Westinghouse Science Talent Search for a theoretical math project studying lattices, winning a $15,000 scholarship.

He briefly enrolled in a doctorate program at the University of California, Berkeley, leaving to join a Silicon Valley–based technology start-up as a software developer.

Upon graduating from law school, Sarvis began clerking for Judge E. Grady Jolly on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in Jackson, Mississippi.

Sarvis has also held Summer Associate positions at law firms such as Kirkland & Ellis and Fish & Neave.

[1] In 2006, Sarvis penned a 40-page article in the University of New Hampshire's Pierce Law Review expressing concern over congressional delegation of legislative responsibilities to the executive branch, and support for increased formalism in separation of powers.

[12] Sarvis supports universal school choice, drug policy reform,[13] right-to-work laws,[14] and gun rights.

2313, which was signed into law by Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell; the bill increased the sales tax to fund transportation infrastructure.

[14] Sarvis opposes Medicaid expansion,[14] and supports abolition of the car tax and occupational license tax,[13][17] Sarvis also called for an end to "the increasing aggressiveness of law enforcement tactics" citing an incident involving Virginia ABC agents and a group of University of Virginia students.

The bulk of contributions primarily came from individual donations; Sarvis was the largest single financial contributor to his own campaign at $21,057.

[49] On election day, some conservative sites claimed that Sarvis' campaign was partly financed by software billionaire Joe Liemandt.

[53] In an interview with U.S. News & World Report, Sarvis denied Limbaugh's accusations against him, saying they were false and part of a GOP "smear campaign."

[54] In 2014, Sarvis announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat against the incumbent, Mark Warner, a Democrat who ran for re-election, and Republican Ed Gillespie.

[58][68][69][70][71][72] In the general election, Sarvis received 53,021 of the 2,181,845 votes cast, or 2.4%, about 3 times the margin separating Warner and Gillespie.