Danica Roem

At 39 years old, Danica Roem physical status not available right now. We will update Danica Roem's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

When Roem was a child, her grandfather would tell her, "the basis of my knowledge comes from reading the newspaper every day." This influenced her to become a journalist. She was a journalist for ten and a half years. Her first job out of college, in 2006, was at the Gainesville Times in Gainesville, Virginia. She was lead reporter for the Gainesville Times and Prince William Times. She then went to work as a news editor in August 2015 at the Montgomery County Sentinel in Rockville, Maryland, where she was employed until December 2016. She then decided to run for public office. She said her journalism career has given her a wide knowledge of policy issues. She won awards from the Virginia Press Association seven times.

Political career

Roem first became interested in politics in 2004 following President George W. Bush's proposal to add a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. After that, she was interested in looking into how the government operates and how she could change it.

Roem was recruited to run for the Virginia House of Delegates by her local Democratic Party and specifically Delegate Rip Sullivan, the recruiting chair for the Virginia House Democratic Caucus. She states that she had never considered running, but it did not take a lot of convincing. In 2017, a first-time candidate, Roem challenged Republican Bob Marshall, who was a 13-term incumbent representative. Marshall is a self-described "chief homophobe" and was a sponsor on Virginia's bill to end same-sex marriage and Virginia's bathroom bill.

Roem was endorsed by the Victory Fund, EMILY's List, Run for Something, Virginia's List, and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and was able to raise $500,000 in donations, much of it coming from LGBTQ+ supporters and other national allies, out raising her opponent 3-to-1. Her campaign knocked on more than 75,000 doors in a district with only 52,471 voters. Her campaign faced significant transphobic discrimination. Marshall consistently attacked Roem's gender identity through his advertisements. She was also attacked by a conversion therapy advocate, who stated that Roem was trans because her father committed suicide and her grandfather failed to serve as an adequate role model for her. Roem stated that she never wanted the focus to be about her gender, and instead focused mainly on traffic issues in the district that she had faced.

Roem ran as a Democrat in the 2017 election for the 13th District of the Virginia House of Delegates against Republican incumbent Bob Marshall, who had held the office for the previous 25 years. In January 2017, Marshall introduced the "Physical Privacy Act" (HB 1612), a bathroom bill which died in committee two weeks later in January. Marshall has referred to himself as Virginia's "chief homophobe".

Roem declared her candidacy in January 2017. She received endorsements from the Victory Fund and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. Between April 1 and June 1, Roem received 1,064 donations of under $100, the highest of any delegate candidate in the state other than Chris Hurst. Roem's platform was based on economic and transportation issues, centered on a promise to fix Virginia State Route 28.

In July 2017, following President Donald Trump's announcement of a ban on transgender people serving in the U.S. military, Roem received a $50,000 donation from Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele.

In August 2017, Roem received an endorsement from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). In October 2017, she was endorsed by former Vice President Joe Biden.

In September 2017, Roem posted a web video entitled "Inspire", criticizing her opponent's refusal to debate her or to refer to her as a woman. In the video, she says "There are millions of transgender people in the country, and we all deserve representation in government."

In October 2017, Roem's campaign received reports that residents of her district were receiving anti-transgender robocalls. Roem said the calls were being made by the American Principles Project, which has circulated a petition to "Stop Transgender Medical Experimentation on Children". Also in October 2017, the Republican Party of Virginia mailed campaign fliers attacking comments Roem made during a September radio interview. Although the fliers, approved by Roem's opponent, used male pronouns to refer to Roem, the party's executive director dismissed the idea that they were attacking Roem's gender identity.

Over the course of the campaign, she out-raised Marshall by a 5 to 1 margin, collecting over $370,000, including over 4,100 small-dollar donations from Progressive Change Campaign Committee members.

In the 2019 cycle, Roem was challenged by Republican Kelly McGinn, a former human rights lawyer. Roem campaigned heavily on her vote to expand Virginia's Medicaid program and efforts to reduce traffic on the congested Route 28. On November 5, 2019, Roem defeated McGinn, becoming the first openly transgender state legislator to be re-elected.

Roem faced Republican challenger Christopher Stone in the 2021 Virginia House of Delegates election. On November 2, 2021, Roem defeated Stone.

Roem is a member of the Communications, Technology, and Innovation Committee and serves as the Chair of the Communications Subcommittee. In the Counties, Cities, and Towns Committee, she serves as chair of the Charters Subcommittee and as a member of the Ad Hoc Subcommittee. Additionally, Roem serves as a member in both the Transportation Innovation and General Topics Subcommittee and Transportation Systems Subcommittee in the Transportation Committee.

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