Mia Love: GOP House Candidate Hopes to Break Stereotypes
Mia Love may be running for the House of Representatives on the Republican ticket, but she is not your typical candidate. In fact, Love is breaking the Republican stereotype of an older, white gentleman in several ways.
To begin with, Love is African-American, a strong woman, and Mormon. She has spent nearly eight years in the political spotlight as the mayor of Saratoga Springs in Utah. Now she hopes to secure a seat in the House of Representatives in the next election.
"We have an opportunity to reach some of our fellow Americans that we haven't been able to reach, every, on the conservative side," Love told Yahoo News. "And if I can reach our fellow Americans and get them to believe what we believe-that the way they're going to realize the American dream is through hard work and that they can do it, then I'm happy to play that role. I'm happy to be the example."
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Love also believes in a smaller role for American government.
"I know what the proper role of government is. I don't really know what's going on in somebody's backyard. It's not my job to know what's going on in their backyard, and I try to stay out of everyone's personal lives and their property," she said.
She has received endorsements from Republican leaders such as Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan, and Kevin McCarthy. Should Love win a seat in the House, she will be the first African-American Republican woman to do so.
"We have an opportunity to do something very special. Today we can start breaking a pattern," Love told delegates before a Congressional race on Saturday. She won that race with 70.4 percent of the vote, nearly 11 percent above what is required by Utah law.
"I think there's a desire to send a message to the rest of the country that Utah is not all white males," associate professor of political science Tim Chambless told the Washington Times.
