Hi, everyone. I’m Sam Shirazi, and this is Federal Fallout the 2025 Virginia Elections. This is a special bonus interview where I will be interviewing State Senator Danica Rome. She represents the 30th State Senate District in western Prince William County. It also includes the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park.

00:19.41

Sam Shirazi

And I really appreciate the state senator for taking the time to join me.

00:23.15

Danica Roem

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much, Sam.

00:25.41

Sam Shirazi

Yeah. So I wanted to talk about a few different things, but I think it’d be interesting to hear your background, how you decided to run for office. And I did want to also plug your book, Burn the Page, which I think gives you know the full story. But if you wanted to just give a brief background on yourself and why you decided to run for office.

00:44.74

Danica Roem

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so so kindly, especially for mentioning the book, too. So I’m a lifelong resident of the greater Manassas area. you know, I was born at Prince William Hospital off of Sudley Road at Manassas September 30th, 1984.

00:57.83

Danica Roem

And, you know, I was our local news reporter for the Gainesville Times, the Prince William Times here. for nine years, two months, and two weeks from 2006 to 2015. twenty fifteen and covered everything during that time that you can imagine from you know high school sports to you know interviewing candidates for governor and U.S. s senator, all the like.

01:17.26

Danica Roem

And you know i’ve really focused a lot on political coverage as well as you know stuff just going on in the community in general, specialized in transportation, of course. And after in 2015, I took a job as the news editor of the McAmarin County Sentinel over in Maryland. So had a nice little commute from Manassas there.

01:36.50

Danica Roem

And i had also spent from 2009 to 2013, four out of five years at one point, just like, well, from 2009 to 2013, I was a staff writer for the hotline at National Journal in DC, where I was covering state and federal campaigns every single day, starting at six of them the morning.

01:55.63

Danica Roem

And so for four out five years at one point, I was working two full-time jobs. And then 2015, I went over to the Sentinel. And at the beginning of 2016, after you know I had earned a degree in journalism in 2006 from St. Bonaventure University, go Bonneys.

02:14.09

Danica Roem

i And i had you know spent you know the next decade of my life reporting the news. It did get to a point for me personally in my own transition where I didn’t want to just stay neutral on everything when the Virginia General Assembly that year had nine anti-LGBTQ bills that had come up.

02:36.57

Danica Roem

And so very early in January 2016, I had asked my editor at the Sentinels like, hey, I’d like to go down to Richmond so I can go advocate against some of these bills.

02:46.88

Danica Roem

And, but at the same time, you know, I’m a news editor, I’m a reporter, i know, you know, i have to be a neutral, dispassionate third party observer. And, you know, telling me, he’s like, well, just because you became a reporter didn’t mean that you lost your right to redress grievances with your government. So he pretty much told me, like, you know, be smart, don’t do anything stupid, and you I got your back.

03:06.32

Danica Roem

And he’s also told me, he was like, The last time I checked, Richmond, Virginia was not in the circulation area of Montgomery County, Maryland, correct? I’m like, right. Well, then, okay, then you’re fine. So I was like, okay.

03:16.61

Danica Roem

So i drove down, advocated against these bills, and we defeated seven of them before they even got to the floor. Another one we ran out the clock on, and then then Governor McAuliffe vetoed the last one live on WTOP.

03:29.41

Danica Roem

And during my advocacy... I had stopped over at an Equality Prince William meeting so I could kind of brief a bunch of folks in Prince William about what was going on with these bills.

03:40.32

Danica Roem

And I came across the 2015 Democratic nominee for the 13th District of the Virginia House Delegates, which at the time was represented by Bob Marshall. The Democrat who had lost was Don Shaw. And I told john Don, you know, in passing, hey, I voted for you, you know, and bla bla blah, blah, blah.

03:55.36

Danica Roem

And we just got to chatting. Well, fast forward that summer, I’m working a second job as a you know, weekend delivery driver, you know, making $5 an hour plus tip out of my 92 Dodge Shadow, you know, because journalism, just community journalism is not a great financial decision for you to, you know, pay the bills. It’s essential, important work, but it’s, you know,

04:18.48

Danica Roem

It was tough. And so I had to have a second job. And I was doing these 11, 12, 13 hour weekend delivery driving shifts and such. And was one day i get this email, August 4th, 2016. And Don asked me, hey, i have to move out of the area. Have you considered running? You’d be really good.

04:36.80

Danica Roem

And i laughed out loud and I closed my laptop. I didn’t even think twice about it. And then the next day i got a phone call from State Delegate Rip Sullivan, who is recruiting chair for the House Democratic Caucus.

04:47.42

Danica Roem

And he asked me, hey, you know, have you considered running? you be really good. And I said, well, I know what i would run on, which is fixing my mom’s commute. She’d been driving from Manassas to get to her job in near Dulles for you know nearly 40 years at that point.

04:59.60

Danica Roem

And I said, you know, the guy who was in office at the time is more concerned about where I go to the bathroom than how my mom gets to work. So let’s go something about it. And well, I knew at that point for all the years I had covered campaigns, I had never been on the inside of a campaign.

05:15.09

Danica Roem

And so I i knew i needed to get trained. And I was aware of the LGBTQ Victory Institute’s candidate campaign training program. So I applied for it. I couldn’t believe that I got in, but I did. And it was like right after the 2016 election, we met up in Dallas for four days over there. And I learned from an insider perspective about how campaigns run.

05:38.82

Danica Roem

So I decided to run over the next two months. And in that decision making, James Parrish from Equality Virginia put me in touch with Julie Copeland, who is the then executive director of Emerge Virginia.

05:52.92

Danica Roem

And he said, hey, we’ve got someone who’s running against Bob Marshall, by the way, it’s trans women. So just want to let you know that she’s out there. And Julie’s like, yes, send her to me. And so I went into this three day boot camp and it was all these Democratic women who are put our names on the ballot that year.

06:11.39

Danica Roem

And we all learned how to ran for off run for office together. And meanwhile, at the same time, the 2017 Emerge Virginia Signature Program was going on. And there was a particular a person in that class who now all of Virginia knows because her name was Abigail Spanberger.

06:29.41

Danica Roem

And from that class, actually, Delegate Elizabeth Bennett Parker was in that class, among many others. And our classes overlapped for one day together in Alexandria on a Saturday.

06:41.59

Danica Roem

And so, you know, that election in 2017, we flipped 15 seats red to blue in the House of Delegates that night. It was, you know, some of the likes of which we had not seen in a very long time.

06:54.24

Danica Roem

And of those 15 Red to Blue seats, 11 of us were women. And of the 11 women, nine of us were Emerge alums. And of those nine, eight of us had gone through that boot camp that year.

07:06.24

Danica Roem

And so, you know, it was a real big banner moment for Emerge because at that point, only Jennifer Boisko and Kathleen Murphy, both of whom had flip seats Red to Blue, by the way,

07:17.56

Danica Roem

were Emerge alums in the House of Delegates, and there were no Emerge alums in the State Senate. Well, fast forward today, now there are 17 Emerge alums in the Virginia House of Delegates.

07:27.74

Danica Roem

There are five State Senate Emerge alums, myself included, along with Jennifer Carroll-Foy, Stella Prokarski, Jennifer Boisko, as I mentioned before, and Russell Perry. And this year, we also have another 16 Emerge alums who are challenging Republicans in House Delegates districts.

07:44.28

Danica Roem

We’ve got another six Emerge alums who are running for local office. And biggest change from 2017 to now for me personally is I’m now the executive director of Emerge Virginia. And I took over in February of 2022. And that’s kind of brought us where we are today.

08:01.06

Sam Shirazi

Well, that’s a really great background. And before we get to the individual candidates, I did want to ask you about Emerge Virginia virginia generally. you know What is it that you provide the candidates and why do you think it’s important that candidates get that kind of training?

08:14.16

Danica Roem

Oh, absolutely. Great question. So what Emerge Virginia provides for the candidates is not only the actual training where they’re hearing from experts, from people who have run campaigns before as candidates, as well as staffers, and they’re hearing a whole world of different perspectives.

08:32.50

Danica Roem

They get the network. They get each other. when i was When I was first sworn in in 2018, 2018, most of my closest you know allies in the General Assembly at that time were the Emerge women who I trained with.

08:45.94

Danica Roem

And it was really, really incredible to have that network and that commonality that we all kind of fall back on. And to this day, that’s still a sentiment that is really strong in the Virginia General Assembly, where a lot of the Emerged alums are really close with each other in both chambers.

09:05.36

Danica Roem

And i think that that’s also really important because you have that sense of commonality and you know the same information. And that’s allowed a lot of Emerge alums to exchange a lot of ideas with each other, which I think is really, really, really critical. And so, yes, of course, you are learning everything from how to raise money, how to, you know, get volunteers out for you, how to, you know, do all the paperwork and get your, you know, websites online and stuff in all the community organizing, how to talk to press, how to hone your own message, working on your public speaking,

09:39.61

Danica Roem

We go through all of that in our signature program, and the next signature program is going to start November 8th and 9th. It’s going to be the first weekend, of once a weekend for every five months that we’re going to do. and we’re going to have some days that are to be in Richmond, some days that are going virtual.

09:56.03

Danica Roem

There’s more information about it It’s on the Emerge website. You can check it out at va.emergeamerica.org. And... you know So I’m really, really excited for everything that’s coming from it. But the thing I always tell everyone about this is it’s the network. We’ve trained more than 300 Democratic women how to run for office in Virginia since its founding in 2014.

10:17.41

Danica Roem

And you know considering how many that we have in office today and how many we have on the ballot this fall, you know it’s it’s really something else. It’s a very special network.

10:28.02

Sam Shirazi

Well, as you mentioned, there’s a lot of your alum who are running this year in Virginia. And I wanted to ask about a specific race and then obviously feel free to talk about any of the other races. So specifically in middle Prince William County is House District 22.

10:42.85

Sam Shirazi

Former Delegate Elizabeth Guzman is running in that seat. And part of that district overlaps with your district. So I know you know that that area really well. What are you seeing in that race and then in any of the other races across Virginia?

10:56.56

Danica Roem

Oh, sure. I think especially for your audience who’s interested in learning about how, you know, federal fallout is impacting the down ballot is impacting what people are talking about.

11:08.30

Danica Roem

You know, HD 22 without question is one of the top seats in the state. You know, that’s super competitive right now where. all the, you know, the rifts that have just been after the reduction in force, along with the original doge cuts, along with just basically the scale back to the federal government in general, where is it hitting right now? Well, it’s absolutely hitting in Western Prince William in Mid-County right now, without question.

11:33.31

Danica Roem

It’s a you know, very pressing issue that’s come up here. And, you know, at the same time, you know people’s energy bills. That’s another thing that’s you know really important because data center sprawl, huge issue, especially in Bristow.

11:47.74

Danica Roem

And you know former Delegate Guzman, she’s a very vigorous campaigner. No one’s ever questioned about that. That’s you know her chief skill set that she brings to office. She’s very, very you know good on doors and making sure that she’s you know well-funded. She’s one of the Democratic challengers who’s out-raised a Republican incumbent this year, which is actually pretty common for a number of our Emerge alums, which is, you know, really exciting to see.

12:12.60

Danica Roem

And at the same time, I think there’s this notion right now that when we hear about, you know, federal fallout affecting, you know, House of Delegates races and stuff, that it’s Northern Virginia and then, well, maybe a little Hampton Roads, but it’s Northern Virginia where you’re going to really see this.

12:28.76

Danica Roem

And sure for sure. And, you know, the races between not just, you know, for former Delegate Guzman running in the twenty second but You know, Josh Thomas running in the 21st district. And then I think next door, you know, John McAuliffe, who’s running to flip a seat.

12:41.90

Danica Roem

Josh is running to retain his seat. jo And John is running to flip a seat in Western Loudoun and Northern Falkir. You know, that’s clearly going to be an issue out there as well. But I’ll highlight another Emerge alum who is hearing a lot about this as one of the top three issues in her race. And that’s Casey Carnegie in the 89th district. And so this is in Chesapeake and Suffolk and Hampton Roads.

13:04.24

Danica Roem

And for a lot of federal workers who work in Norfolk specifically, they actually live out in some of the more suburban areas of Hampton Roads. And even though you know it’s like a lot of cities right for Hampton Roads.

13:19.00

Danica Roem

you know They’re still kind of you know in sort of the way that you would kind of look at Prince William, very similar sorts of development very often. And what Casey’s been hearing about in Suffolk and Chesapeake, you know as she’s trying to represent you know her home community and everything.

13:35.95

Danica Roem

she hears a lot at the doors. She’s been telling me about the impact of all the federal cuts and stuff. And if I was to tell you, you know if I’m handicapping who are going to be some of our you know most likely seats to flip red to blue this fall, 22 that you just mentioned, I’m looking directly HD 89. That’s a really good bellwether. I think we’ve got a strong candidate in Casey where When she came into the signature program for 2024, 2025, she’s a local attorney. She’s mom. She’s got really, really strong connections to her district.

14:12.38

Danica Roem

And at the same time, she was new to campaigning. And so she had a lot of questions about, hey, I want to really, really learn a lot about all the aspects of what it takes to run a successful campaign.

14:23.28

Danica Roem

So she came in from there, you know kind of you know at that baseline. And then she went on. And she won every single precinct when you look at the reallocated votes from early voting and from in-person early voting or from mail-in ballots and in-person early voting.

14:38.36

Danica Roem

She won every precinct in her primary. And I would say that you know she’s in a very good position right now to win this fall. you know So I think she’s got a very strong message. I think she’s doing great. And you know as she was training in her class, we also had Nicole Cole, who’s now running against Bobby Orrick, who’s the dean of the House of Delegates.

14:58.38

Danica Roem

And this is the first time that this district has really been put in play in a competitive way since the 90s. I think this is, you know, if Spotsylvania and Caroline flip this year, you’re talking about, you know, Democrats in all 14 of those targeted red to blue seats, you know, really having a chance of a clean sweep at that point.

15:19.07

Danica Roem

At the same time, Nicole, Casey, Elizabeth, We have eight Emerge alums who are running in these top 14 red to blue seats right now, and a number of whom are, you know, previous candidates as Doug Guzman is.

15:33.50

Danica Roem

Lily Franklin in the 41st district running for that Montgomery County seat that’s anchored in Blacksburg. and guess she’s got little bit of Rona County. that’s That seat, I think, is Lily is... It’s really interesting because I always talk to her. I talk about Lily Franklin, what she brings to the table, in the same way that you would talk about someone in the performing arts as being a triple threat and that they can sing, act, and dance.

15:56.34

Danica Roem

Lilly is a really special case here where you got someone who is so strong on policy because she worked in the General Assembly as a chief of staff. She knows policy really well.

16:07.06

Danica Roem

Incredibly good campaigner. you know She almost won this seat in 2023 despite being very much underfunded. And a lot of people would tell you that.

16:18.02

Danica Roem

And then the third part on that is she’s good at public speaking. And I’ve watched her develop in that role too. And so I think she’s you know she’s she’s really got what it takes to win. And meanwhile, Kimberly Pope Adams right now in that Petersburg anchored seat that’s got Dinwiddie, it’s got a bunch of rural Virginia south of Richmond,

16:39.81

Danica Roem

We’re talking about someone in Kimberly Pope Adams case here who a lot of people did not believe would win her primary in 2023. She had actually dropped out of it for like one day in 2023, came back and just won this huge by huge margin surprise victory in her primary, came within a recount in the general election.

17:01.16

Danica Roem

And Kimberly Pope Adams is, I mean, she speaks the language of her district so, so well. And she’s been excellent, excellent with her ground game. I’m really, really particularly pleased with how well she’s been executing, knocking on doors, making phone calls, and handling the basics and getting the basics right of the campaign.

17:21.92

Danica Roem

And, you know, I would not be surprised to see Carolee Pope Adams in the, you know in the winner’s circle this fall at all.

17:28.13

Sam Shirazi

Yeah, well, you did a really good job breaking down some of the big races and some of the alum that yeah have been trained and are now running. and And we’ll see how many of them make it to the General Assembly in January.

17:40.27

Sam Shirazi

I did want to ask, because you in 2017 ran and then you won in a blue wave and there was a big class of people coming in to the General Assembly. What do you think it would be like for the new class of delegates who come in and what advice would you have for them?

17:55.51

Danica Roem

Sure. So i kind of theorize this in two ways. One is, what if we have 2017 part due, right? you know What if you know Democrats catch lightning in a bottle this year and you find out that, hey, Democrats end up flipping a whole bunch of seats in the House of Delegates?

18:16.01

Danica Roem

I think for the Emerge alums who win, they’re going to have not only the network of themselves as brand new members to the Virginia House of Delegates, what they’re also going to have that we didn’t have with the same volume is they’re going to have the existing eMERGE network that’s already in the House, where we’ve got 17 incumbents at this point.

18:40.22

Danica Roem

Whereas when i was you know when we had the nine of us who won in 2017, you know, we had Jennifer Boyce go in Kathleen Murphy there and that was it, you know, for the Emerge alums. We had other women for sure, but these days Emerge alums make up, you know, overwhelming majority of the house democratic women at this point and just adding more to that all the better. So I think they’re going to have a strong network amongst themselves. They’re have a strong network among the incumbents who are already there.

19:11.83

Danica Roem

the thing I would tell them that I think is really important is that when the House of Delegates conducts its own training and it’s bipartisan, it’s for all the new members.

19:24.89

Danica Roem

And so you’ll have Republicans, Democrats alike who come into, you know, who come into it. It’s so important that you not only talk to other Democrats, you need to talk to Republican, you know, you know, delegates elect as well.

19:39.14

Danica Roem

It’s really, really important to have relationships on both sides of the aisle as soon as you can. And that training opportunity, remember, most people are meeting the other people in that in their class for the first time during that training.

19:55.45

Danica Roem

And so It’s going to be really important that you have a good first impression and get along with people because you don’t know how long those relationships can go on for. For example, you know, State Senator Emily Jordan, she’s a Republican.

20:09.75

Danica Roem

Her and i we won our elections, you know, at the same time in 2017. We actually got along really well in our training together. And, you know, we are very different on policy, you know, a lot of ways, you know different politics, different, lot of that.

20:22.05

Danica Roem

But you know we’ve maintained a cordial relationship you know over last eight years too. And that’s something i I think I would just really stress to people is making sure that You’re talking to people on both sides, even if Democrats, you know, hey, we get a trifecta, everything’s great.

20:38.69

Danica Roem

Virginia is a pendulum politically. And so, you know, we have seen there’s the 20 year majority that the Republicans had for the House of Delegates. That’s long gone.

20:49.16

Danica Roem

But now we’ve also seen, you know, just in my terms that I’ve been there, i had Kirk Cox, the Speaker of the House, Eileen Fillercorn, a Speaker of the House. Todd Gilbert, is Speaker of the House. And then I went to the Senate.

21:02.50

Danica Roem

And now we have Don Scott, a Speaker of the House. We’ve had four speakers of the House in the eight years that I’ve been in office, just under eight years. And so I think it’s very, very important for people to make sure that they’ve got good relationships on both sides of the aisle.

21:18.81

Sam Shirazi

Well, I think that’s good advice, especially in these days where things have become so part partisan. i did want to ask one kind of interesting question for people who really are in the weeds about Virginia politics.

21:30.30

Sam Shirazi

you were You served both in the House of Delegates and now you’re in the State Senate. Could you talk about kind of the differences, similarities and what it was like to serve in both those bodies?

21:39.15

Danica Roem

Yeah. So in the house of delegates, house delegates funnier, that’s for sure. you can have, uh, you have a lot more, we’ll just say a flaring of emotions.

21:51.64

Danica Roem

and And not all negative. Sometimes, you know, it can be a very funny place to work. Paul Nardo, who is the clerk of the House. I mean, like just like Paul just is the House of Delegates in a lot of ways. He like he you know, he’s he’s very well respected both sides of the aisle, even though you he came up as Bill Howell’s chief staff. But, you know, it’s just, you know, he’s very well respected. And I think biggest difference between the two is that because the House Delegates is a hundred member body.

22:19.36

Danica Roem

And you have members, unless you sit on an aisle or you sit in the back row, you have members who are squeezing and shoving, trying to get themselves behind other so people in their seats as you’re trying to get to your seat and stuff. And so it’s, we’ll just say it’s a very cozy environment in the house.

22:37.02

Danica Roem

And because of that, There are members who absolutely take the initiative to walk over to the other side of the aisle during downtime and, you know, talk to other members. And i think that’s really, really important, you know, skill set to have.

22:52.57

Danica Roem

At the same time in the Senate, that’s every day, every day in the Senate, because you have 40 members instead of 100. You have a physically smaller room. And decorum in the Senate is a very big deal.

23:09.29

Danica Roem

Whereas in the House during my time there, decorum, every speaker will talk about the importance of it. I think... In the House, you’ll have members who just who who shout at each other you know you know on camera, on the mic, and have very heated rhetoric that go back and forth between each other.

23:26.56

Danica Roem

Absolutely, that happens. In the Senate, that’s more frowned upon. And it’s very, very much like, look, the members on both sides of the aisle, you’re on four or five committees.

23:38.71

Danica Roem

You’re going to be working with just about everyone at different points. you’re going to be interacting with each other on members from both sides of the aisle, whether you want to or not very, very frequently.

23:52.27

Danica Roem

And so i would say the house of delegates was a really good training for me to have had over six years going into the Senate. It gave me such a headstart on policy, on understanding the dynamics of the Senate, because I had, you know gotten to know a lot of the senators over the years.

24:10.90

Danica Roem

And at the same time, it wasn’t coming to the Senate completely green. That said, you don’t have to have served in the House of Delegates to you know go into the Senate, but a lot of us do.

24:22.47

Danica Roem

The other thing in the Senate is the four-year term absolutely comes with a different perspective because in the House, Kirk Cox used to say,

24:34.40

Danica Roem

The first day of your next campaign is election day of the campaign that you just won, because that’s when you’re meeting voters and you’re greeting them and everything.

24:46.45

Danica Roem

And immediately you’re getting started fundraising and, you know, doing community outreach and stuff for the next two year cycle. You’re already doing it. It’s just you’re in the nonstop campaign mentality when you’re in the House.

25:01.05

Danica Roem

And in my case, having flipped a seat from a 26-year, 13-term incumbent, having you know a really vigorous challenge in 2019, still a battleground challenge in 2021, but that one wasn’t actually like you know super well-funded. It was really, I was told, hey, you you know we’re not going to ask you to give extra caucus dues.

25:23.37

Danica Roem

but you’re going to have to run your own campaign because you know we’ve got other priority seats. And you know that was its own challenge in and of itself, without question, 2021, especially with the headwinds that came in.

25:33.79

Danica Roem

And I actually outran my top of the ticket in my district by 0.13, which is kind of interesting. And then 2023, race... you know my race what’s What’s interesting in the 2023 one is there were other races that were getting funded well, and I had the second worst thing that could happen to you as a candidate. The worst thing that happens to you as a candidate is you lose.

25:56.52

Danica Roem

The second worst thing it happens to you as a candidate is that you have a really good poll that comes in for you right before the start of early voting. And I did. And so at that point, it’s like, all right, Janica, you’re not going much of a priority right now. We really got to shift money into...

26:12.35

Danica Roem

some of these other seats. And i was like, oh no. And so I knew i was not going to win that election by the amount that that early polling showed us. And that is like, okay, we had 41 negative slash contrast you know mailers with negative you know you know messaging against me come into the district that my campaign I knew about.

26:34.71

Danica Roem

And then there were the TV ads, then there were digital and all this other stuff. And we did not have nearly as much mail. We didn’t have nearly as much TV digital. Well, actually, pretty close, i would say on that. But they got started before we did it in some regards.

26:49.06

Danica Roem

And we just kind of had to you know, really win that that campaign on the ground until the last week of the campaign when we knew the other side was going to go up with, you know, just about half million dollar buy.

27:02.79

Danica Roem

And so we had to, you know, make sure that we did what we had to do on that one and put up something similar. And we did. you know, one at the end of the day, it was just, you know, really, really took one on took one for the team in that campaign. And, you know, and that’s that’s okay. You know, whatever it takes for you to get to that majority, that’s what we did.

27:20.93

Danica Roem

So the biggest difference though, otherwise for the Senate versus the House, I think because of the volume that you’re dealing with of legislation and committee, the volume that you’re dealing with on the floor,

27:34.64

Danica Roem

and the number of committee assignments that you have. There’s a lot of people who come to you when you are a new member of the Senate with a certain air of respect that they project to you that they don’t always project project on new members of the House.

27:55.79

Danica Roem

I had people who would come up and talk to me in the Senate who I don’t believe would have given me the light of day my first term in the House. And that’s not among other members. That’s just like, you know, people who come in and out of Capitol Square pretty much.

28:11.13

Danica Roem

And so that was, i think there is a certain respect that’s afforded to first year senators that a lot of delegates need several years in order to just gain over time or depending on what their committee assignments are or anything. So, you know, I think those are some of the key differences.

28:32.80

Sam Shirazi

Well, certainly had some interesting experiences, and I’m sure you’ll have more as you continue in the state Senate. I did want to ask kind of one last question about Emerge Virginia, specifically about and of local offices, because and know when you were a reporter, you covered a lot of local politics.

28:49.86

Sam Shirazi

And oftentimes, the big organizations tend to overlook that they focus on the state level stuff. and What do you think the importance of local politics is? And How can there would be more of an emphasis on that? Because I think oftentime it gets oftentimes it gets overlooked.

29:04.99

Danica Roem

Oh, I mean, like, here’s a great example right now. you know, so for Emerge, we’ve got six Emerge alums who are running for local office right now. We’ve got Lauren Coliver running for re-election for Blacksburg Town Council.

29:18.45

Danica Roem

Keish Evans for in Stafford County. And actually, what’s interesting is the the sheriff of the city of Richmond, Antoinette Irving, she was actually in my 2017 boot camp for Emerge. And, you know, so she’s running for another term.

29:31.32

Danica Roem

Trina McLaughlin and Danville for school board. That’s a special election down there. Lucy Pullen here in Manassas Park, Commissioner Revenue. She’s unopposed, you know so you know she’s a lock for that seat.

29:42.06

Danica Roem

And then Blythe Scott, who’s running for re-election for Norfolk, Commissioner Revenue. What’s really important if you’re into politics and campaigning is very often this is where your farm team comes from.

29:56.07

Danica Roem

right This is where a lot of people, you know they get their start in local government before they run for you know higher office. Great example of this this year right now is Nicole Cole.

30:08.20

Danica Roem

Nicole Cole you know running in that Spotsylvania, Carolina County seat. She flipped a seat on the Spotsylvania County School Board. It’s important to note that school board races are officially nonpartisan, but the parties make endorsements rather than nominations.

30:25.12

Danica Roem

But that’s the sort of thing where it’s just like, okay, she’s held elected office before, so she’s a little bit more a known quantity. And I think that’s really important in a district like that. And also a side note, you know between her race and, say, Stacey Carroll next door you know in Stafford County, who’s running the flip a seat, who’s another Emerge alum,

30:45.68

Danica Roem

These are also areas to watch for some of the long distance federal commuters because, you know, the VRE stops in Spotsylvania. It stops in Stafford. And so I’m very interested to see, you know, kind of how that plays out down the 95 corridor a bit.

31:02.49

Danica Roem

So otherwise for the local offices, we don’t have as many up in Northern Virginia this year because we had a lot of those elections this past year.

31:11.72

Danica Roem

That said, we do have a special election for Gainesville District Supervisor this year, longtime Republican-held seat, an incumbent who died, who knew very well over a long, you know almost 19 years.

31:23.64

Danica Roem

So we’ve got a couple candidates running there. in the city of Manassas, we’ve got both of our constitutional offices up, Commissioner of Revenue and Treasurer, City of Manassas Park, we’ve got a special election for city council, plus we’ve got Treasurer and Commissioner of Revenue.

31:37.36

Danica Roem

And if you want your local government to function well on a day-to-day basis without having the sort of infighting, dysfunction, all the sorts of problems that you see where you have people who you know just get it wrong, for lack of better words.

31:58.44

Danica Roem

You’ve got to have good candidates who are well-intended, who are running for these local seats. And a great example, Lucy Pollan, our Emerged alum who’s running for Commissioner Revenue in Manassas Park,

32:10.86

Danica Roem

She’s coming directly out of the office of the commissioner of revenue for the city of Manassas. I think the fact that she has such significant experience directly in the line of work that she’s running for right now is probably part of the reason that she’s unopposed this year, because just she’s going to do a good job. And like, I think, I think she’s, you know,

32:31.71

Danica Roem

really got a good shot there, which is which is great. you know I’m very excited to see to see how she goes. But you know from there, i think if you look in the House of Delegates, we have a lot of former local elected officials who are now serving in the House. you know just Among some emerged folks, Elizabeth Bennett Parker, for example, she was on on the Alexandria City Council. I think she was actually vice mayor before she ran for the House. Karen Keyes-Gamara, former school board member for Fairfax County.

33:01.52

Danica Roem

She was actually up in a special election in Fairfax in 2017. And i actually took a part of a day to go knock doors. in her district, which overlapped with Carrie Delaney’s House Delegates District that she was running for, so we can help them out. So my team and I, we actually took a field trip to Fairfax that day to help them with the special, and they won, which was great.

33:20.92

Danica Roem

And Laura Jane Cohen, she’s another Emerged alum who’s a former elected Fairfax County School Board member. are And then even someone like, you know, Brianna Sewell, she wasn’t elected to local government, but she had significant local government experience before she came in.

33:36.71

Danica Roem

Tusa Reesers, another former school board member who’s an Emerge alum in the House. So, you know, i think it’s really, really significant that we’ve got, you know, people looking at having strong people elected locally who can make a difference later. And by the way, for those folks, every vote counts.

33:57.09

Danica Roem

Shelly Simons, Emerge alum, is a prime example for why. She had been a school board member, ran for House of Delegates, 2015 lost. When she ran in 2017, it was a tied race that was decided by a what I like to call fishbowl drawing in Newport News. And that was the reminder that every single vote counts. So she won in 2019. She’s doing great now. i expect her to be reelected this fall.

34:22.07

Danica Roem

But yeah, you know so we’ve got a lot of people who’ve been elected at local levels so who then run for the House. And if you look at the members of Congress from Virginia right now, almost all of them, all of them except for Eugene Vindman, came from either state or local government.

34:37.82

Danica Roem

If you include Don Beyer in his role as presiding over the Senate in particular, you know for he had been Lieutenant Governor. When you look at James Walkinshaw in Northern Virginia, he had come from the Fairfax Board.

34:50.16

Danica Roem

When you look at Suha Subramanian, he was my seatmate in the General Assembly, both the House and the Senate. And then All the Republicans had local elected experience. Jim McClellan was a state senator and a former member of the House Delegates.

35:03.87

Danica Roem

Bobby Scott served in the General Assembly way back when, too. So just, you know, if you want to know who the elected officials at the statewide and federal level of tomorrow are, let’s start looking at who’s in office today, because, you know, that’s where the farm team comes from.

35:19.16

Sam Shirazi

Well, that that makes sense. And I imagine there might be some new members on the team as as the elections happen this year. I usually like to end with something about a person’s district. And so I think most people, they think of your district, maybe Manassas Battlefield comes to mind. What is something like in your district that you really enjoy or something that people don’t often think about in your district?

35:40.78

Danica Roem

Oh, all right. So I’ll give you. So the one that you just mentioned from Manassas National Battlefield Park, when people come to the battlefield, most people go to Henry Hill, which is basically where the visitor center is.

35:54.27

Danica Roem

It’s the site, the the main site for where the first battle of Manassas was fought. in 1861. It was the first pitched battle of the Civil War. A lot of people overlook the part of the battlefield that is dedicated for the second battle that happened in 1862. Horrendously bloody affair, terrible affair.

36:16.67

Danica Roem

What a lot of people don’t know about that one also, by the way, is A sharpshooter almost most picked off Robert E. Lee there. He was coming up the Warnton Turnpike, and they grazed his cheek, almost like almost took him out. And the nephew of Stonewall Jackson was actually killed at the Second Battle of Manassas.

36:36.86

Danica Roem

I would urge any anyone, if you come to see the Battle of Manassas or you come to the Massas battlefield, please, by all means, come enjoy Henry Hill. Come enjoy the Visitor Center. you know Walk around, go see the Union Monument, everything. you know it’s it’s It’s really breathtaking to be out there.

36:51.82

Danica Roem

Make time to go to Deep Cut, where the fighting of the second battle was so intense that soldiers on both sides started picking up stones and throwing them at each other because they were out of the ammunition. I mean, like go see the Brooklyn monuments that the state of New York You know, delivered here a little after the turn of the 20th century to commemorate their war dead where I always pronounce their name wrong, but I’ll just say it how I always say it with the Zouaves.

37:21.99

Danica Roem

They were just massacred, but they held the line and actually allowed Pope to retreat in the first place and get out of there before he got captured. So, you know, it was very, very crucial stand that they actually had there and even in the losing effort.

37:35.37

Danica Roem

And because of what happened at the Second Battle of Manassas, that’s actually what set up Antietam. And Antietam is what directly led to the Emancipation Proclamation. And so Second Battle of Manassas, not only important historically, but today that is the area that is most threatened by data center development. Now, the data data centers want to be coming on federal property itself, but directly next door to it is where you know the Prince William Digital Gateway would set up if it were actually successful in court. It lost in the you know it lost most recently over the public notice requirement that’s now being appealed.

38:15.39

Danica Roem

But Go to Bronner Farm. Go check out that second battlefield of Manassas and really take in an appreciation for the fact that an area like that still exists in Northern Virginia. And by the way, if you like just wildlife and trees and such, great place to see that too. Go hike the trail there.

38:35.58

Danica Roem

And for a non-battlefield experience with that, go out to Silver Lake. Go out to Silver Lake. It’s called the Gem of Prince William County. It’s on Haymarket. It’s a very tranquil, passive-wrecked place to go to as well. So if you like outdoors, like stuff like that, check it out.

38:51.92

Danica Roem

Otherwise, if you like really big and loud, we’ve got Jiffy Lube Live in Bristow in my district. My very first concert ever was at AusFest 99 over there when it was still in the Nissan Pavilion. So, you know, we’ve got, people for people who like being around a whole bunch of other people in a very loud environment. And then we’ve got the pristine beauty of the battlefield and Bull Run mountain and, uh, Silver Lake. So, you know, my district really has a lot to offer.

39:17.69

Danica Roem

And even here in the city Manassas park, we actually have three parks in Manassas park for a little two point something miles long, uh, city. And, I love hiking over at Blooms Park. It’s great.

39:28.94

Danica Roem

It’s actually one of the few areas that we’re reforesting in Northern Virginia, which is amazing. It former golf course, now being allowed to just regrow. And we got Signal Hill Park. They got like ball fields, you know, pool and a bunch stuff over there. And then Costello Park actually came up playing ball there when I was a kid.

39:47.13

Danica Roem

That’s still around. That’s where the Mass Park Community Center is. And then City Manassas, head on into Old Town. We’ve got First Friday in Old Town. So the first Friday of most months, it’s a big street party festival, lots of bands and food and all this other stuff. So it’s always good time. And then last Friday in Manassas Park, they’ve got one too with our downtown that’s under construction. so Yeah, just want to say Sam, thank you so much for having me today. Also, we’ve got a couple other Emerge alums in those top eight seats. Just want to quickly mention as well, Leslie Mehta, Lindsay Doherty, who are running for these Chesterfield seats.

40:20.26

Danica Roem

I think I mentioned our other six. If I’ve missed anyone, I’m so sorry to them in advance. But I just want to highlight that, you know, we’ve got some incredible candidates who are on the ballot this fall.

40:30.56

Danica Roem

We’ve got a lot more emerging candidates too. And just because someone loses an election one year doesn’t mean they won’t put their name on ballot again for a future year. And we’re seeing that happen right now. So thank you so much. Thanks for talking about the district. Thanks for plugging my book. It’s called burn the page. It’s an audio book, ebook and hardcover.

40:47.88

Danica Roem

And if you want any more information about our program and merge, please visit va.emergeamerica.org. We’ve also got a big event that’s coming up in Richmond on November 8th over at Strange Ways Brewery off of Dabney Road. So come on out. Love to see you.

41:03.87

Sam Shirazi

Well, thanks so much for taking the time to come on. And it’s been really interesting to hear all about that. And I’m sure once the results come in, i wouldn’t be surprised if some of your alumni end up winning this year. So anyways, thank you so much. And this has been Federal Fallout. And I’ll join you next time.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit samshirazi.substack.com