Mia Love won the battle. The first black woman republican, Haitian-American to be elected to Congres
Mia was born in Brooklyn, New York and eventually moved to Connecticut. Mia recalls both parents Working hard to earn a living, her father at times taking on second jobs cleaning toilets to pay for school for their three children. On the day of Mia’s college orientation, her father said something to her that would become the ethos for her life:
"Mia, your mother and I never took a handout. You will not be a burden to society. You will give back."
Mia graduated from the University of Hartford with a degree in fine arts. She found faith. Then she found Jason. And then she found herself in Utah ready to give back. Mia served two terms on the city council of Saratoga Springs, one of Utah’s fastest growing cities. As City Councilwoman and eventually Mayor, Mia led the city through a period of 1700% population growth in a decade. Under her leadership, the city was able to successfully navigate the drastic transition from agricultural fields to a booming residential community. When the citizen growth necessitated fire and police services, Mia fought to make sure the city’s first ever residential tax implementation would only pay for those essential services, and she structured it in such a way that the tax decreased as a percentage of property value.
Mayor Love is best known for her conservative positions on limited government, increased citizen liberties and limited restraints on business. She believes the best thing she can do as mayor is stay out of the way of business and out of the lives of citizens. She advocates a return to the personal responsibility and reduced government dependency engendered by her father.
In one of the most closely watched and expensive House races of the 2014 Election, rising Republican star Mia Love, a Brooklyn-born Haitian-American woman, held off a late surge by Democrat Doug Owens to win Utah's 4th Congressional District. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Love defeated Owens, 50 percent to 47 percent.
Love, 38, a mother of three and a member of the Mormon church, becomes the first black Republican woman and the first Haitian-American to be elected to Congress. Polling data had the former mayor of Saratoga Springs well ahead of Owens in August, but Owens was able to close the gap in recent weeks.
It was a comeback of sorts for Love. In 2012, she lost to popular six-term incumbent Rep. Jim Matheson by just 768 votes out of 245,277, or 0.3 percent, in a district that includes parts of Salt Lake County. Libertarian candidate Jim Vein finished with 2.6 percent of the vote, perhaps playing spoiler to Love's historic bid two years ago. Matheson, the lone Utah Democrat in Congress, announced in December he would not seek re-election for an eighth term.
Love withstood a late charge by Owens in the polls. In August, Love had a 12-point lead in a UtahPolicy.com poll.
The 2014 campaign was marked by a wide disparity in campaign contributions. Love’s campaign raised more than $4.67 million, compared to $658,000 by the Owens campaign, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Of the more than 19,000 individual contributions to Love’s campaign, 95 percent came from outside Utah.
Owens, a Salt Lake City native and Yale Law School graduate, is the son of the late Wayne Owens, a 2nd district representative for 16 years. Owens was aided by the support of Matheson, who campaigned on his behalf. In an October debate, Owens portrayed Love as too extreme, claiming she was "hiding her position on student loans, Pell grants, and the Department of Education."
Love appeared at the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, giving a four-minute speech where she told the story of her immigrant parents, who arrived in the U.S. with “$10 dollars in their pocket.”
