Mia Love Wins, First Black Female Republican Elected To Congress

Mia Love is the new Congresswoman from Utah.

Love, 38, is the first black female Republican ever elected to the U.S. House, and the first African-American representative from her state. A daughter of immigrants, she is also the first Haitian-American member of Congress.

“Many of the naysayers out there said that Utah would never elect a black Republican LDS woman to Congress,” said Love last night after she was declared the winner of the contest. “Not only did we do it, we were the first to do it.”

LDS is a reference to the Mormon faith.

In her first run for Congress in 2012, Love lost to six-term incumbent Democrat Jim Matheson by only 768 votes (0.31 percent). Perhaps seeing the handwriting on the wall, Matheson declined to run for reelection this time around. The Democrat nominee in 2014 was attorney Doug Owens who, like Matheson, was from a well-known political family in Utah.

The former mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah, in the Salt Lake City area, Love developed a national following in part after the inspirational speech that she gave at the Republican National Convention in Tampa in August 2012.

Love won the campaign for Utah’s 4th Congressional District this time by 50 to 46 percent. With Love’s victory as the GOP was also capturing control of the U.S. Senate and increasing its hold on the House, Utah’s Congressional delegation is now 100 percent Republican.

In one of her debates with Owens, she declared, “I love the story of David and Goliath, because in that story, David turns toward Goliath… toward a seemingly impossible challenge. That’s the type of confidence we need to have as we take on the Goliaths of our debt, out-of-control spending, Obamacare, and that Godzilla we call the federal government.”

In a post-election statement, the Congresswoman-elect explained, “Thank you for the trust you have placed in me. I will work every day to be deserving of it. Regardless of who you voted for today, I hope you know that I am going to Washington to represent everyone in the district and invite you to engage with me in finding real solutions to the challenges we face as a country. Let this be a lesson to the nation that we’re not interested in dividing Americans based on gender, race, social status. We are more interested in the integrity and honesty of a candidate, someone who is going to return power back to the people and away from Washington.”

Mia Love will take office in January when the new Congress is sworn in.

[image credit: Gage Skidmore]