By Mila Madison

Roem had defeated Republic Incumbent Bob Marshall, the lawmaker who once proposed an anti-transgender restroom bill, earlier in the month in a resounding victory. Since her win, she continues to be targeted for her gender identity. Most recently, Republican lawmakers made the decision to stop using gendered language in Virginia’s House of Delegates so they wouldn’t have to acknowledge her identity as a woman. Now Roem has fired back in a mic-dropping storm of tweets calling them out for their racism, xenophobia, and demagoguery.

Since the election, I’ve repeatedly heard these Republican talking points about why they lost, basically making Democratic voters out to be too dumb to vote Republican and caring too much about identity politics. At risk of giving them good ideas, let me break this down. /1

​

1) I spent 10 months detailing my plan to fix #Route28: how much it would cost ($300M), how to pay for it (reallocating 28-66 funds), what it would look like (replace traffic lights with overpasses) & how I would get it done (local+state). Y’all hit me on “transgenderism.” /2

​

2) At the state level, y’all made a pediatrician who volunteers at a children’s hospice out to be a member of MS-13 and campaigned throughout the state on Confederate statues and fiscally reckless tax cuts your own state senators called BS. And you wonder why you lost? /3

​

3) Here in Manassas, @carterforva and I talked relentlessly about jobs. Roads. Schools. Health care. Equality. I know this because Lee and I saw each other on the stump constantly. And y’all went after us for and “teaching transgenderism to kindergartners” and “socialism.” /4

​

4) When you spend an entire year just trying to make people afraid of people in their community and you apply this (these) asinine labels as if you’re trying to make people afraid of an ideology or an idea, then you’re neglecting the very basics of governing to divide our communities. /5

​

5) Look at the BS the Democrats in PWC had to put up with from y’all this year. Racism. Xenophobia. Transphobia. When I went on offense in my TV ad, I had a first-person testimonial from someone in PWC who your policies left uninsured. You hit me for my band and my gender. /6

​

6) Bottom line: Knock off the divisive BS and actually campaign on boring stuff like infrastructure because it’s the boring stuff that the people pay you with their tax dollars to work on so they don’t have to focus on it. That’s literally your job. Try doing it. /7

​

One more thing: Stop believing your own headlines. I knew beyond a shred of doubt we would win this race when y’all actually, sincerely thought based on a POS robo poll that 27% of Dems wouldn’t vote for me if they knew I’m trans. 1) Wrong. 2) Stop attacking trans people. #NoH8

One thing is perfectly clear; Danica Roem is not backing down from the pressures of her adversaries and will be a champion for equal rights during her tenure as state legislator.