Politics
Election 2012: Mia Love on track to becoming 1st black Republican woman elected to Congress
Saratoga Springs Mayor Mia Love speaks at the Republican state convention, Saturday, April 21, 2012 in Sandy, Utah. PHOTO/Leah Hogsten/The Salt Lake Tribune/AP Photo
In her bid to become the first black Republican woman elected to Congress, Mia Love is the party’s emblem of diversity this campaign year. She’s reluctant to embrace the role, saying she doesn’t let race or gender define her politics.
The 36-year-old mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah, points to her policy stances as the reason for her success.
“I was elected mayor not because of my race or gender, not because I wear high heels, but because of the policies I put in place,” Love said in a recent interview.
Polling shows Love with a slight lead over Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson, a six-term incumbent. The race is still too close to call.
In a party that has struggled for decades to attract black voters, the daughter of Haitian immigrants included subtle nods to civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks in her speech to the Republican National Convention in August.
“Our story has been told for over 200 years with small steps and giant leaps,” she told the applauding delegates. “From a woman on a bus to a man with a dream, from the bravery of the greatest generation to the innovators and entrepreneurs of today, this is our story.”
Love has made much of her family story, a hallmark of her stump speeches: Her parents legally immigrated to Brooklyn, N.Y., in the early 1970s, she says, with just US$10 in their pockets. She says her father — who has toiled as a painter, janitor and school bus driver — taught her never to ask for a handout. Her parents became naturalized U.S. citizens in 1984.
