US Elections: Mia Love, First Republican Black Woman Elected To US Congress

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Mia Love has been elected to the US Congress. She will represent Utah's 4th Congressional district. The former mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah was the 2012 Republican Party nominee for the United States House of Representatives in Utah's 4th congressional district, when she narrowly lost to the democratic candidate Jim Matheson by less than 800 votes.

A daughter of Haitian immigrants, Later Day Saint member or Mormon, she will be the first African American woman to be elected to the

US Congress as a Republican. Mia Love, 38, was born Ludmya Bourdeau on December 6th, 1975 in Brooklyn, New York, United States. As a mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah, the first black woman to hold mayoral office in Utah, Love has been a rising star in the republican party. She became the 2012 Republican Party nominee for the United States House of Representatives in Utah’s 4th congressional district. Prior to joining politics, Love had various careers as flight attendant, fitness instructor, and musical performer .

Love attributes her success to her Haitian immigrant parents, who arrive in the U.S. with only $10 in their pockets. According to Love, her instilled in her and her siblings the sense of responsibility, self-reliance and the importance of entrepreneurship and seizing the opportunity, while strongly stressed the importance of an education. Mia Love often cites her father, Jean Bourdeau, who, according to her, often said: “I want them to be something what I never be in my country. I want them to go to school, to learn. This is the country of ‘up’. You can be whatever you want to be.”

Mia Love is married to a White, Jason Love, whom she first met Jason in Connecticut where he was a Latter Day Saints missionary. They have three children.

There is already an anticipation in Washington, DC. to see what the dynamic Mia Love will bring, especially among the Black congressmen. She has said that she will join the Congressional Black Caucus and promised to shake it from the roots.