Openly Trans Danica Roem Defeats Bigot-in-chief Bob Marshall

Tonight has been an amazing night watching Virginia elect Democrats and send a very loud message to Der Trumpenführer and Republicans who continue to campaign on a constant message of hate and division.  As a gay man, as sweet as the Democrat sweep of the statewide offices, the defeat of Del. Bob Marhall, a man who once basted that he wanted drive all gays from Virginia, go down to defeat to Danica Roem, an openly transgender woman was ever so sweet.  Particularly since Marshall wage an exceptionally aggressive war on transgender Virginians.  Back in April I had the the privilege of meeting Danica Roem at the Equality Virginia Commonwealth Dinner where I was an honoree.  She will be an amazing addition to the House of Delegates.  Here are highlights from the Washington Post on her victory:

Democrat Danica Roem ousted longtime incumbent Del. Robert G. Marshall (R) Tuesday, becoming the first openly transgender elected official in Virginia — and one of very few in the nation.

The race between Roem, 33, and Marshall, 73, focused on traffic and other local issues in Prince William County but also exposed the nation’s fault lines over gender identity. It pitted a local journalist who began her physical gender transition four years ago against an outspoken social conservative who has referred to himself as Virginia’s “chief homophobe” earlier this year introduced a “bathroom bill” that died in committee.

A crowd of Roem supporters inside the City Tavern in Manassas erupted when Roem’s victory was announced. They cheered even louder when Northam was projected to win the governor’s seat.

The contest was one of dozens of state legislative races where Democrats were pushing to gain ground in the Republican-majority General Assembly, buoyed by a surge of anti-Trump sentiment among Democrats and independents and hoping to provide an example for the nation of how to run in opposition to the unpopular Republican president.

Roem outraised Marshall 3-to-1, with nearly $500,000 in donations, much of it coming from LGBT advocates and other supporters across the country. She and her supporters executed an aggressive ground game, knocking on doors more than 75,000 times in a district with 52,471 registered voters, sitting for endless public appearances and interviews, and maintaining a steady social media presence.

Marshall, who was first elected in 1991, refused to debate Roem, kept his schedule private and declined most interview requests. 

While Roem campaigned mostly on local frustrations with traffic congestion along Route 28, she also talked about her gender identity when asked. The race took an ugly turn when Marshall and his supporters released ads highlighting  Roem ’s transgender identity and referring to the Democrat with male pronouns.

In the end, that tactic failed, with Roem leading by nearly 10 percentage points with 90 percent of the vote counted, according to preliminary, unofficial results.

In addition to calling him “a mirror” of Trump, Roem criticized Marshall as a lawmaker more concerned with advancing his conservative agenda than with dealing with local problems such as traffic.

That message resonated in communities along Route 28 — particularly Manassas Park, a rapidly changing area that has seen an influx of immigrants and millennials in recent years.Marshall lost there four years ago, when he defeated Democrat Atif Qarni by just 498 votes.

A state Republican Party flier accused Roem of “wanting transgenderism taught to kindergartners” — a reference to a radio interview in which she supported the idea of addressing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender matters in schools “in an age-appropriate manner.”

Quentin Kidd, director of the Wason Center for Public Policy at Christopher Newport University, said Marshall may have erred in making too much of Roem’s transgender identity while refusing to participate in public-policy debates.