Overview:
Mia Love, the previous Utah congresswoman who turned the primary Black Republican lady elected to the U.S. Home of Representatives, died Sunday at her house in Saratoga Springs, Utah. She was 49.
Mia Love, the previous Utah congresswoman who made historical past as the primary Black Republican lady elected to the U.S. Home of Representatives and the primary Black particular person to symbolize Utah in Congress, died on Sunday, March 23, at her house in Saratoga Springs, Utah. She was 49. The trigger was glioblastoma, a type of aggressive mind most cancers she had battled since 2022.
Born Ludmya Bourdeau Love in Brooklyn on Dec. 6, 1975, she was the daughter of Haitian immigrants who had come to the USA within the Seventies. Her father labored in constructing upkeep, whereas her mom transitioned from housekeeping to a profession as a nursing assistant. The household finally settled in Connecticut, the place Love turned concerned in theater and performing arts.
Mia Love, a Haitian-American and former mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah, has turn out to be the primary Black Republican lady elected to the U.S. Home of Representatives.
She earned a scholarship to the College of Hartford’s Hartt College and briefly toured with a musical manufacturing earlier than taking a job as a flight attendant. In 1997, she transformed to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and relocated to Utah, the place she later married Jason Love. The couple had three kids.
Her political profession started in 2003 together with her election to the Saratoga Springs Metropolis Council. In 2009, she was elected mayor, turning into the primary Black lady to carry elected workplace in Utah County. She entered nationwide politics in 2012 with a run for Congress, narrowly dropping. She gained the seat two years later and served two phrases within the Home earlier than dropping her 2018 re-election bid to Democrat Ben McAdams by fewer than 700 votes.
Throughout her time in workplace, Love was recognized for her advocacy of restricted authorities and financial conservatism. She additionally joined the Congressional Black Caucus, regardless of earlier criticisms of the group, and shaped working relationships with each Democratic and Republican colleagues.
Love typically referenced her Haitian heritage and her mother and father’ immigration story in public remarks. In 2018, she publicly criticized then-President Donald Trump’s derogatory feedback about Haiti, defending the dignity of immigrants and her household’s background.
After leaving Congress, Love turned a contributor on CNN and continued to interact in political commentary. In 2023, she revealed a memoir, Certified: Discovering Your Voice, Main With Character, and Empowering Others, through which she mirrored on her upbringing, profession, and political philosophy.
She was recognized with mind most cancers in 2022. In her last months, Love continued to make public appearances and wrote a farewell column revealed in Deseret Information, through which she thanked supporters and mirrored on her life and values.
Love Household: With grateful hearts stuffed to overflowing for the profound affect of Mia on our lives, we would like you to know that she handed away peacefully right now. She was in her house surrounded by household. Within the midst of a celebration of her life and an avalanche of comfortable… pic.twitter.com/YzhAuH1l9x
— Mia Love (@MiaBLove) March 24, 2025
“She was in her house surrounded by household. Within the midst of a celebration of her life and an avalanche of comfortable reminiscences, Mia quietly slipped the bands of mortality and, as her phrases and imaginative and prescient all the time did, soared heavenward,” Love’s household posted on X as they introduced her dying on Sunday.
Along with her husband and youngsters, Love is survived by her mother and father and siblings. Memorial service particulars haven’t been launched.