Danica A. Roem (/roʊm/ ROHM; born September 30, 1984)[1][2] is an American journalist and politician who has served in the Virginia Senate since 2024.

[10] Roem has stated that her role models growing up were Senator Chuck Colgan and Delegate Harry Parrish because, although they were affiliated with a party, they had more independent ideologies.

She then went to work as a news editor in August 2015 at the Montgomery County Sentinel in Rockville, Maryland, where she was employed until December 2016.

[12] She won seven awards from the Virginia Press Association, including multiple wins as the "Readers’ Choice” for best local public servant.

[9][13] Roem opposes a bill that would require schools to notify parents if their child identifies as a gender different from the student's assigned sex.

[16] Similar bills have been introduced by Roem and other General Assembly members in three previous legislative sessions but have failed to advance.

Roem first became interested in politics in 2004 following President George W. Bush's proposal to add a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.

[6] She was also attacked by a conversion therapy advocate, who stated that Roem was trans because her father committed suicide and her grandfather failed to serve as an adequate role model for her.

[18][23] Roem ran as a Democrat in the 2017 election for the 13th District of the Virginia House of Delegates against Republican incumbent Bob Marshall, who had held the office for the previous 25 years.

[33] Between April 1 and June 1, Roem received 1,064 donations of under $100, the highest of any delegate candidate in the state other than Chris Hurst.

[34] Roem's platform was based on economic and transportation issues,[35][36] centered on a promise to fix Virginia State Route 28.

[37] In July 2017, following President Donald Trump's announcement of a ban on transgender people serving in the U.S. military, Roem received a $50,000 donation from Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele.

[40] In September 2017, Roem posted a web video entitled "Inspire", criticizing her opponent's refusal to debate her or to refer to her as a woman.

Roem said the calls were being made by the American Principles Project, which has circulated a petition to "Stop Transgender Medical Experimentation on Children".

[41][42] Also in October 2017, the Republican Party of Virginia mailed campaign fliers attacking comments Roem made during a September radio interview.

Roem campaigned heavily on her vote to expand Virginia's Medicaid program and efforts to reduce traffic on the congested Route 28.

In December 2018, the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, the District of Columbia's largest local LGBT political group, honored Roem with its Justice Award.

[58] During her campaign, her Republican opponent said that her "eccentric music videos" led her to be "out of touch with the district's suburban sensibilities" and not fit for the position.

[9][18] In her 2022 memoir, Burn the Page, Roem wrote, "I'm pretty straight sexually for a woman in that I physically prefer a masculine presentation but pansexual romantically in that someone's gender doesn't determine my ability to fall in love with that person.

[11] She won her university's gender buster award, and received negative responses due to it in her school's student newspaper.