Democrat Danica Roem has claimed victory in Virginia, becoming the state’s first transgender senator in an historic win, the Washington Post reports.
Roem has unseated anti-LGBT+ Republican Robert Marshall who, earlier this year, introduced an ultimately unsuccessful ‘bathroom bill’ that would have regulated the transgender community’s use of public bathrooms.
Marshall—who has previously referred to himself as the state’s “chief homophobe”—refused to debate Roem in the lead up to the election and has repeatedly misgendered her.
Human Rights Campaign president Chad Griffin says Roem’s win has sent a powerful message across the United States.
“Danica Roem’s historic victory is a clear warning to anti-equality lawmakers across the country that the days of attacking LGBTQ people to scare up votes are over,” said HRC President Chad Griffin.
The executive director of Equality Virginia—James Parrish—commented that the win was “not only a victory for transgender Virginians, but for transgender Americans as well."
“Roem ran a smart, issues-driven campaign focused on improving the lives of her neighbours; a campaign that ran counter to her opponent’s divisive and transphobic rhetoric,” Parrish added.
The 32-year-old former journalist campaigned on traffic issues, raising the minimum wage, school funding reform, civil rights issues, economic development and infrastructure fixes.
“Voters are far more interested in economic development and schools and transportation than they are in any cultural war in a House of Delegates district,” Stephen J. Farnsworth, a political-science professor at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg told the Washington Post.
