Mia Love, First Black Republican Woman in Congress, Passes Away at 49
Mia Love, former U.S. Representative from Utah, who made history as the first Black Republican woman elected to Congress, has passed away at 49.
Love’s family shared news of her death Sunday (March 23) on the former politician’s official X account, revealing she died peacefully at home in Saratoga Springs, Utah, following treatment for brain cancer.
Born Ludmya Bourdeau to Haitian immigrants, Love was raised with a firm belief in the American dream. “My parents came to the U.S. with $10 in their pocket and a belief that hard work would lead to success,” she wrote in a Deseret News op-ed earlier this month. “I was raised to… love this country, warts and all.”
Love’s political journey began in 2003 when she was elected to the Saratoga Springs City Council. She later became mayor, and in 2014, she won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing a deeply conservative district. She acknowledged the weight of her victory, once saying she defied the belief that “a Black, Republican, Mormon woman couldn’t win a congressional seat in overwhelmingly white Utah.”
Though briefly heralded as a GOP rising star, Love distanced herself from then-candidate Donald Trump in 2016, choosing not to attend the RNC and publicly stating she wouldn’t vote for him. After losing her 2018 re-election by fewer than 700 votes, Trump infamously said, “Mia Love gave me no love, and she lost. Too bad.”
Despite political setbacks, Love remained deeply reflective and committed to unity. “Some have forgotten the math of America — whenever you divide you diminish,” she wrote in her final column.
“In the end, I hope that my life will have mattered and made a difference for the nation I love… I hope you will see the America I know… and feel my presence in the flame of the enduring principles of liberty.”
Rest in power, Mia Love.
