She was a star in the Republican party, beginning with her speech (while she was the Mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah) at the 2012 Republican National Convention. That year, she lost her first bid for Congress, by fewer than 1000 votes.
She tried again, and was elected, two years later, and then again two years after that.
In 2018, she was defeated by Democrat Ben McAdams by fewer than 700 votes, having become, in the eyes of some, a little too Romneyesque, and not Trumpy enough for The Donald. Her political career was over.
Three years after she left Congress, she was diagnosed with gioblastoma and given ten to fifteen months to live. She made it through another thirty seven.
Three weeks ago, her daughter announced that her mother’s cancer treatments were no longer effective, and that her family was “moving from treatment to enjoying [their] remaining time with her.”
She died on March 23, 2025, at the age of just forty-nine.
Mia Love was the daughter of Haitian immigrants to the US, a husband and wife escaping from the Tonton Macoute with about $10 in their pockets, and speaking no English when they arrived. Her father began his working life in the US as a janitor, and progressed to paint company manager, and her mother worked as a nurse; both became naturalized US citizens, and eventually brought to the US Mia’s two older siblings who’d been left behind when their parents fled Haiti. Mia herself was born in Brooklyn, New York on December 6, 1975.
She remains (for the benefit of those who are counting), the first elected black congresscritter from Utah, the first Haitian-American elected to Congress, and–to date–the only black female elected congressional representative from the Republican party.
A woman who’d accomplished so much, yet who’d been cheated of so much on this earth, Mia Love–just twelve days before she died–published My Living Wish for the America I Know, in the Deseret News. A few excerpts:
My dear friends, fellow Americans and Utahns. I am taking up my pen, not to say goodbye but to say thank you and express my living wish for you and the America I know.
…
Let me tell you about the America I know. My parents immigrated to the United States with $10 in their pocket and a belief that the America they had heard about really did exist as the land of opportunity. Through hard work and great sacrifice they achieved success — so the America I came to know growing up was filled with all the excitement found in living the American dream. I was taught to love this country, warts and all, and understand I had a role to play in our nation’s future. I learned to passionately believe in the possibilities and promise of America.
…
The America I know is grounded in the gritty determination found in patriots, pioneers and struggling parents, in small business owners with big ideas, in the farmers who work in the beauty of our landscapes and the artists who paint them, in our heroic military and our inspiring Olympic athletes, and in every child who looks at the seemingly impossible and says, “I can do that.”
…
The America I know is great — not because government made it great but because ordinary citizens like me, like my parents and like you are given the opportunity every day to do extraordinary things. That is the America I know!
Gratitude. Grace. Toughness. Love.
That’s the America I know, too.
Ludmya Bourdeau Love, rest in well-deserved peace.
We’ll keep the light on.
