Mia Love

Mia Love, 36, is on track to become the first black Republican woman elected to Congress. But her path to politics has been as non-traditional as it is quintessentially American. On the campaign trail and on her website, Love tells the story of her parents — Haitian immigrants who came to the United States “with $10 in their pockets in hopes of achieving the American dream.” She was born in Brooklyn, and her parents became naturalized citizens in 1984. Love likes to talk about personal responsibility, and made it one of the cornerstones of her campaign. She stresses that her parents never took a handout, and that her father told her to “never be a burden to society.”

“Citizens should not expect the government to provide to them what they can provide for themselves. And no citizen, business, local government, or state should expect a bailout to shield them from the consequences of their own decisions,” she says on her website. “Our nation was founded on the principles of individual liberty and personal responsibility, and we must return to those roots.”

The rising Republican star once had dreams of a different kind of fame — the kind that comes with Broadway lights. She trained for a career in musical theater, but gave up the chance for a starring role on Broadway to marry her husband, Jason Love, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. She got involved in city council after neighbors enlisted her to help solve an insect problem in her subdivision, the Tribune reported. And though the mother of three may make history on election day, Love told the Associated Press that her campaign is about policy, not race or gender. “I was elected mayor not because of my race or gender, not because I wear high heels, but because of the politics I put in place,” she told AP.


Photo: Courtesy of Love4Utah