Historic win as first openly transgender senator wins election

• Aparna Sreevalsan
• 9 November, 2023

THREE-term Virginia state legislator and former journalist Danica Roem became the first openly transgender person to be elected to a state senate seat in the South on Tuesday (7) after a close contest that aided Democrats in seizing control of the Virginia senate.

She is the first openly transgender person elected to Virginia’s upper house and, as of 2020, the only transgender person elected to any state Senate in the US, after Sarah McBride of Delaware.

LGBTQ+ organisations celebrated her win in the densely populated 30th District of Northern Virginia, pointing out that she had been the victim of persistent anti-transgender remarks during the campaign.

Roem, a Democrat, defeated her Republican opponent, Bill Woolf, by more than 3 percentage points. Woolf, a former Fairfax County police officer, was endorsed by the state’s Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin.

“I’m grateful the people of Virginia’s 30th Senate district elected me to continue representing my lifelong home of western Prince William County and greater Manassas,” Roem said in a statement shared on social media Tuesday.

“The voters have shown they want a leader who will prioritise fixing roads, feeding kids and protecting our land instead of stigmatising trans kids or taking away your civil rights.”

Six years ago, Roem—a 39-year-old —made political history by being the first openly transgender person to be elected to and installed in a state legislature.

She did this by defeating a long-serving, socially conservative member from Virginia.

Annise Parker, president and CEO of the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, a national organisation dedicated to getting LGBTQ people elected to public office, said Roem’s win “serves as a deafening rebuke to bigots who continue to try and silence the LGBTQ+ community and trans people in particular”.

In an interview, Roem, a Democrat, revealed that her opponents targeted her identity through a barrage of ads and negative mailers.

Despite the attacks, she edged out Republican Bill Woolf III by fewer than 2,000 votes, securing just under 52 percent support in a closely watched race.