Danica Roem is the first openly transgender candidate to be elected and serve in a state legislature, but that’s not why she was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates last year.

The Democrat defeated Bob Marshall, a 13-term Republican incumbent who described himself as the state’s “chief homophobe,” by talking about how horrible the traffic was on the highway through her district and how she’d fix it — something people in her district really cared about.

While the rest of the country wanted to talk about her gender during the campaign, Roem wanted to talk about Route 28.

And now, after a year on the job, Roem is settling into the nitty-gritty of legislative work and tending to her constituents’ needs. And when it comes to how she wants to treat her constituents, she has an unusual role model, at least for a politician: the heavy metal band Metallica.

“There’s a lot you can learn from heavy metal which would be really good for politicians to know and for candidates to know,” Roem told The Chronicle’s “It’s All Political” podcast. “One of them is: Authenticity matters.”

The Metallica homage isn’t surprising, as Roem has sung in metal bands for more than a decade — which is almost as unusual as her gender status among the repp tie-wearing political set. She learned about the Bay Area metal band’s work ethic and personal touch during an episode of VH-1’s “Behind the Music” that she saw as a youth. In its early days, band members would sign every autograph and pose for every photo that fans requested.

“That always really, really stuck with me,” Roem said. Now, as “a local delegate with a national profile,” she said, she often spends two hours after speaking appearances talking to people.

“I go back to that Metallica work ethic,” Roem said, who was in San Francisco along with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., to address a fundraiser for Emerge America, a national training program for Democratic female candidates. “I will shake every hand. I will have every conversation. And I will take every photo until they kick us out.”

The other thing she promised voters is that she would be a full-time legislator. That is hard, given that Virginia delegates earn $17,640 a year. So Roem is working on a book — even though during the campaign, opponents attacked her with a mailer that accused her of running for office just so she could get a book deal.

Roem has an idea for a title that would lampoon the charge. She’d call it: “Transgender Candidate Writes Book.”

Deep dives and late takes

California Democrats are outraged over the Trump administration’s separation of migrant children from their parents. They also see it as a chance to reframe the immigration debate. [Chronicle]

Sen. Kamala Harris calls for the Trump official running the “zero tolerance” immigration operation that splits up families to resign. [Chronicle]

Being rich and pouring money into your own campaign has never been a guarantee of election victory in California. It was no different in this year’s primary. [Chronicle]

Some groups that spent big during the primary were more interested in discouraging other candidates’ supporters than in turning out the vote. [Chronicle]

After days of silence over a measure headed for the November ballot that would split California into three states, GOP governor candidate John Cox finally takes a position. [Chronicle]

An Oakland city councilwoman says Mayor Libby Schaaf is vulnerable to an election challenge. But she won’t be the one to do it. [Chronicle]

San Francisco’s dwindling population of African Americans sees the election of London Breed as mayor as a reason for hope. [Chronicle]

A protest against splitting up migrant families at the border and World Refugee Day events are coming up on the Bay Area political calendar. [Chronicle]

The Political Punch newsletter publishes every Tuesday and Thursday between noon and 3 p.m. It is produced by the staff of the San Francisco Chronicle and edited by politics editor Trapper Byrne. Email: tbyrne@sfchronicle.com