Democrat Danica Roem became the first transgender person to be elected to Virginia's state legislature on Tuesday after defeating a 13-term member of Virginia's House of Delegates. 

Roem, a former newspaper reporter, defeated three other Democrats in the primary. Once she is sworn in in January, she will be the first openly transgender legislator seated. 

Stacie Laughton, who is openly transgender, was elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives in 2012. She never took the seat because it emerged between Election Day and her swearing in that in 2008 she (then known as Barry Charles Laughton) had been sentenced to prison for conspiracy to commit credit card fraud. Althea Garrison from Massachusetts was elected in 1992 and served one term, but never self-identified as transgender.

Hillary Clinton won Roem's district with more than 54 percent of the vote in the 2016 election.