Roem gets ‘Trump bump’ after transgender military ban

PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY — Virginia House of Delegates candidate Danica Roem can thank the president for an increase in campaign donations.

Roem is Virginia’s first transgender candidate and is running against Delegate Bob Marshall (R-Prince Wiliam, Manassas Park). 

From an email from Danica Roem: 

I’m excited to announce we raised $112,974.21 from 820 donations in July. That’s more money than even House Majority Leader Kirk Cox (R) raised during the last reporting period, June 2-30 ($112,311).

In fact, the number of donations we received exceeded the total number of donations received by the top 18 Republican fundraisers from June combined.

Just on Monday, July 31, we received 135 donations totaling about $6,692, entirely from donations between $1-$250. That’s 108 more donations than Del. Bob Marshall (R-13) received from June 2-30 combined and about $2,000 more than he raised that entire month.

We’ve outpaced Del. Marshall in fundraising from the four communities that make up the 13th District – Manassas, Manassas Park, Gainesville, and Haymarket – from the greater Prince William County area, from the state and across the country.

In fact, our largest donation of the day July 31 ($250) came from someone who lives in Signal Hill precinct, the same precinct as Del. Marshall (I live next door in Yates Ford).

More than $70,000 of our July haul came since last Wednesday when President Trump took a page directly out of Del. Bob Marshall’s (R-13) discriminatory playbook from 2011 by announcing he wanted to ban transgender people from serving in the military. That came six years after Del. Marshall filed HB 2474 to ban gay and lesbian Virginians from serving in the Virginia National Guard.

Marshall’s statement emailed to Potomac Local on July 26, 2017: 

I think this was a prudent decision.  The taxpayer money that would have been spent on costly and risky elective surgeries and decades of synthetic hormones that can cause cancer, in an effort to change sexual appearance, will be much better spent on treating our combat wounded servicemen and our veterans, and on buying equipment to keep our servicemen safe. 

The decision to bar transgender individuals from military service was made in consultation with Generals who know more than I do about what is best for our military. Whatever contract provisions are in place for early discharge should be honored.

I called the VA National Guard HQ earlier today to see what they are doing, and was told they are waiting for a formal directive from the Pentagon before they stop implementing the previous directives.