Danica Roem Bio
Danica Anthony Roem (born September 30, 1984) is an American journalist, author, and Democratic politician who has served in the Virginia Senate since January 2024, representing the 30th district in Prince William County, including Manassas and Manassas Park. A former local reporter and news editor, Roem focused her campaigns on transportation and local issues, especially congestion along Virginia State Route 28. She previously served in the Virginia House of Delegates for the 13th district from 2018 to 2024. Roem is the first openly transgender person elected to and to serve in the Virginia General Assembly, and the first openly transgender person elected to a state senate in the Southern United States. Her election has been noted nationally for advancing transgender representation in U.S. state legislatures.
Early Life and Background
Danica Anthony Roem was born at Prince William Hospital and raised in Manassas, Virginia, the child of Marian and John Paul Roem. Her father died by suicide when she was three years old, and her maternal grandfather, Anthony Oliveto, stepped in as a father figure. Living in Manassas for her whole childhood, she attended Loch Lomond Elementary School for grades K through 3, then All Saints School for grades 4 through 8. She has described her role models growing up as Senator Chuck Colgan and Delegate Harry Parrish, politicians who, in her telling, kept independent views even while tied to a party.
Roem attended Paul VI Catholic High School in Fairfax, Virginia, where she first became interested in metal music and treated the genre as her rebellion. She then enrolled at St. Bonaventure University in St. Bonaventure, New York, her aunt and uncle’s alma mater, to study journalism. As a freshman, she posted a 1.1 GPA and focused more on music than homework, but she raised her grades to a 3.48 the next semester and made the Dean’s List. Her professors described her as tenacious and persistent, someone who worked for those whose voices were often ignored. She returned to Virginia after graduation.
Path to US Politics
Roem first became interested in politics in 2004, after President George W. Bush proposed a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. That debate pushed her to study how government operates and how she could change it from the inside. She later started her transition in 2012 and began hormone replacement therapy on December 3, 2013. In 2015, she legally changed her name to Danica.
Roem was recruited to run for the Virginia House of Delegates by her local Democratic Party and by Delegate Rip Sullivan, the recruiting chair for the Virginia House Democratic Caucus. She later said she had never considered running, but it did not take much convincing. In 2017, as a first-time candidate, she challenged Republican Bob Marshall, a 13-term incumbent who had held the seat for 25 years. Marshall had introduced Virginia’s so-called bathroom bill and had built a reputation as a self-described chief homophobe.
Danica Roem Career
Early Career (2006-2016)
Roem worked as a journalist for ten and a half years before entering politics. Her first job out of college, in 2006, was at the Gainesville Times in Gainesville, Virginia, where she became the lead reporter. She later joined the Montgomery County Sentinel in Rockville, Maryland, in August 2015 as a news editor, and stayed there until December 2016. She credits her grandfather’s habit of reading the newspaper every day with shaping her interest in journalism. She won seven Virginia Press Association awards, including multiple Readers’ Choice wins for best local public servant.
2017 House of Delegates Breakthrough (2017-2018)
Roem declared her candidacy in January 2017 and ran on a platform focused on economic and transportation issues, anchored by a promise to fix Virginia State Route 28. She received endorsements from the Victory Fund, EMILY’s List, Run for Something, Virginia’s List, and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, and raised about $500,000, much of it from LGBTQ+ supporters and other national allies. Over the course of the campaign, she out-raised Marshall by a 5-to-1 margin, collecting more than $370,000, including over 4,100 small-dollar donations from Progressive Change Campaign Committee members. Her campaign knocked on more than 75,000 doors in a district of about 52,471 voters.
Roem won the November 2017 election, becoming the first openly transgender person elected to either house of the Virginia General Assembly. When she was sworn in in January 2018, she became the first openly transgender person elected and seated in a U.S. state legislature. Her opponent had run ads that misgendered her and refused to debate her. Roem responded with a video saying her identity should not be a big deal, adding, this is just who I am.
Re-election Campaigns (2019-2021)
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 on efforts to reduce traffic on Route 28. On November 5, 2019, she defeated McGinn and became the first openly transgender state legislator to be re-elected. Two years later, she faced Republican Christopher Stone in the 2021 House of Delegates election and won on November 2, 2021.
Virginia Senate Era (2023-Present)
Roem ran as the Democratic candidate for Senate District 30 in the 2023 elections against Republican Bill Woolf. She defeated Woolf on November 7, 2023, becoming the first openly transgender person elected and serving in both chambers of a state legislature, and the first openly transgender state senator in the Southern United States. She was sworn in to the Virginia Senate in January 2024. Her committee work includes the Communications, Technology, and Innovation Committee, where she chairs the Communications Subcommittee, the Counties, Cities, and Towns Committee, where she chairs the Charters Subcommittee, and the Transportation Committee.
In the legislature, Roem introduced Virginia House Bill 2132 to amend the state constitution and ban the gay panic defense. The bill passed the House 58-42 and the Senate 23-15 in February 2021 and was signed into law by Governor Ralph Northam. She also co-sponsored HB 36 in 2020 to protect the free-speech rights of student journalists at public schools. In 2025, she sponsored a bill to repeal Virginia’s ban on collective bargaining by public employees; the bill passed both chambers but was vetoed by Governor Glenn Youngkin on March 24, 2025, and the veto was sustained by the Senate.
Notable Events and Milestones
Roem’s signature political moment remains her 2017 defeat of Bob Marshall, a 26-year House veteran, after a campaign centered on fixing Route 28 rather than on her gender identity. She followed that with the first re-election of an openly transgender state legislator in 2019 and a historic 2023 win that made her the first openly transgender person to serve in both chambers of a state legislature.
Danica Roem Career Wins
Roem has won four consecutive general elections in Virginia, beginning with her 2017 breakthrough and continuing through her 2023 Senate victory. She is the first openly transgender state legislator to be re-elected in the United States, and one of a small number of openly transgender lawmakers to hold seats in two different chambers of a state legislature.
Virginia House of Delegates Highlights
Roem won the 13th district seat in 2017, defeating Republican Bob Marshall. She then won re-election in 2019 against Republican Kelly McGinn and in 2021 against Republican Christopher Stone, giving her three consecutive House victories. Her first win is widely described as a national milestone in transgender political representation.
Other Wins and Achievements
Beyond the ballot box, Roem earned seven Virginia Press Association awards during her journalism career, including multiple Readers’ Choice wins for best local public servant. In December 2018, the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club of Washington, D.C., honored her with its Justice Award.
Danica Roem Family
Family Background and Political Lineage
Roem is the child of Marian and John Paul Roem, and was raised in Manassas, Virginia, with the support of her maternal grandfather, Anthony Oliveto, who became a father figure after her father’s death. She has pointed to Senator Chuck Colgan and Delegate Harry Parrish, two Manassas-area lawmakers, as the politicians she looked up to while growing up.
Personal Life
Roem lives in Manassas, Virginia, and has been active in her stepdaughter’s public school board. She has said that she has a boyfriend and a daughter, but chooses not to discuss them often so that they do not face the same discrimination she has. Before politics, she was a vocalist in the thrash metal band Cab Ride Home, which performed 120 shows and toured in the United Kingdom.