Danica Roem breaks through in Virginia Senate by focusing on road rage and not only anti-trans hate

By CALVIN WOODWARD
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Danica Roem is accustomed to opponents using her transgender identity as a cudgel in Virginia legislative races. As part of a broad attack from the right, a national organization distributed mass mailers giving out her personal cellphone number and imploring people to call it to “put the heat” on her in Tuesday’s elections. But she says only two folks who saw the mailers phoned her, and she’s having lunch with one of them. After two comfortable reelection wins in Virginia’s House of Delegates, Roem captured a seat in the state Senate on Election Day. That helped Democrats get a legislative lock in Virginia, complicating Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s social conservative agenda.