Danica Roem

As a reporter, I had to listen to what people were saying and understand their reasoning, regardless of my own opinions. It’s a lot easier to judge people than understand them.

What makes journalism special is you have to actually pay attention, vet your facts, receive an earful from your editor and improve your work while reporting the news as a neutral, disinterested, third-party observer.

And that didn’t change when I earned my election to the Virginia General Assembly. I continue to bring a reporter’s sensibility to everything I do as a legislator.

My number one job as your elected representative isn’t to speak. It’s to listen. To listen to residents, write down their concerns, ideas, and questions, follow up with them, and ensure what they tell me is part of my policy platform. That’s how I took notes and wrote news stories, and that’s how I craft public policy: Research. Question. Listen. Report. That is how we make real change.

I make it my priority every day, in everything I do to strive to be a consensus builder and a changemaker to best serve you, my friends and neighbors, in western Prince William and Greater Manassas.