Danica Roem, the Democratic nominee for Virginia’s District 13 Delegate. (Photo via Facebook)

Danica Roem is a former journalist running to be the delegate for the 13th District in the Virginia General Assembly on the platform of fixing Route 28. She also happens to be openly transgender.

After winning last night’s primary for a district largely in Prince William County , Roem will face Republican Del. Bob Marshall, the incumbent, in the general election on November 7. If she wins, she’ll be the first open transgender person to serve in the Virginia General Assembly.

Marshall has been an outspoken opponent of gay and trans rights during his quarter century in the general assembly. Earlier this year, he introduced a so-called bathroom bill, similar to the North Carolina legislation that, in part, bans transgender people from using public bathrooms that do not match the gender on their birth certificates. The North Carolina bill led to travel bans and boycots that resulted in a loss of around $3.7 billion to the state. Parts of that bill have since been repealed.

Marshall’s legislation goes even further in some aspects than the North Carolina version by requiring school principals to out trans students to their parents. It immediately earned a veto threat from Governor Terry McAuliffe and hasn’t gone anywhere.

He’s also the Marshall in the Marshall Newman amendment, which banned same-sex marriage under the state constitution, until it was struck down by a federal judge in 2014. Here’s a good run-down of some of his other anti-gay views and legislation over the years.

Roem faced three opponents in the primary and won with nearly 43 percent of the vote in a district that went 54 percent for Hillary Clinton in 2016. But the area is considered a bellwether district in a bellwether state. Corey Stewart, a Trump acolyte who nearly pulled off a surprise victory in the GOP primary last night, is the chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, and Marshall has been reelected to his seat since 1991. (The district was redrawn in 2011.)

According to the Virginia Public Access Project, Roem has raised $65,851 to Marshall’s $57,247.

In a statement to The Washington Post, Marshall referred to Roem with male pronouns and said he would run a campaign focused on the issues.

“People are tired of the fact he is focused on discriminatory social policies instead of bread-and-butter, quality-of-life issues they face every day,” Roem told The Post. “He is more concerned with where I go to the bathroom than where his constituents go to work. I’m running a race on improving transportation rather than ensuring discrimination.”