Virginia Transgender candidate thanks grassroot support

RICHMOND, Va. (NEWS 1130) – A transgender candidate who defeated an incumbent Virginia lawmaker and the sponsor of a bill that would have restricted which bathrooms she could use is thanking her grassroots supporters.

Democrat Danica Roem, a former journalist, told Washinton’s WTTG-TV in an interview Wednesday morning that her supporters made it possible for her to run without relying on campaign contributions from corporations. She says she has refused to accept money from Dominion Energy, which she says has too much influence over lawmakers.

Roem is set to make history as the first openly transgender person elected and seated in a state legislature in the United States.

The 33-year-old unseated Republican Del. Bob Marshall, one of the state’s longest serving and most socially conservative lawmakers. The race was one of the year’s most high profile, drawing international attention and big money to the northern Virginia House of Delegates district outside the nation’s capital.

She will be the first transgender member of the House of Delegates and will become the first out transgender person to win and serve in a state legislature, according to the Victory Fund, the political action committee works to get openly LGBTQ people elected and has supported Roem.

Meanwhile, Minneapolis has also marked a historical first according to advocacy groups by electing a black transgender woman to its city council.

Andrea Jenkins easily won the race for a south Minneapolis seat Tuesday with roughly 73 per cent of the vote. Jenkins spent years as a policy aide to two previous council members in the same ward.

Victory Fund, a group that advocates for LGBT candidates, called Jenkins the first openly transgender woman elected to the city council of a major U.S. city. Her win came the same night as Roem’s election.

Former US president congratulates Democratic winners

Former President Barack Obama is congratulating the two Democrats who won gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey.

In a Wednesday morning tweet, Obama said: “This is what happens when the people vote.”

Democrat Ralph Northam beat Republican Ed Gillespie in the race for Virginia governor. In New Jersey, Democrat Phil Murphy trounced Republican Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, who served under the term-limited, deeply unpopular GOP Gov. Chris Christie.

In his tweet, Obama also congratulated “all the victors in state legislative, county and mayors’ races.”