Virginia's most socially conservative state lawmaker was ousted from office on Tuesday by Danica Roem, a Democrat who is poised to become the nation's first openly transgender state lawmaker and embodies much of what Del. Robert G. Marshall fought against in Richmond.
The race focused on traffic and other local issues in suburban Prince William County but also exposed the nation's fault lines over gender identity. It pitted a 33-year-old former journalist, who began her physical gender transition four years ago, against a 13-term incumbent who called himself Virginia's "chief homophobe" and earlier this year introduced a "bathroom bill" that died in committee.