Background:
Ludmya "Mia" Bordeau Love is a Brooklyn, New York native born to Haitian immigrants in 1975. She was primarily raised in Connecticut and later attended and graduated from the University of Hartford with a B.F.A. She converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints prior to marrying her husband, Jason, and moving to Utah. Together, they have three children.
Love served on the Saratoga Springs, Utah city council from 2004-2010 before being elected Mayor of Saratoga Springs, where she is currently serving out her first term. She shocked the political establishment by winning over 70% of the vote at the Utah Republican Convention, and she avoided a general election primary altogether with her overwhelming victory.
Love's campaign website has the following quote from her father as being the driving force to how she lives her life: "Mia, your mother and I never took a handout. You will not be a burden to society. You will give back."
2012 US Congressional Race:
Mia B. Love is challenging 6-term Democratic representative Jim Matheson for the 4th congressional district seat in Utah. Matheson won with just 50% of the vote in 2010, and Mia B. Love might pose the best chance for a Republican pick-up in the newly created district. If Love were to win, she would join Republicans Allen West of Florida and Tim Scott of North Carolina as the only black members of Congress to be elected by majority-white congressional districts.
The district is solidly conservative and is expected to vote overwhelmingly for presidential candidate Mitt Romney. While Matheson will easily outspend Love in the contest, by August she had already raised roughly 30% more than Matheson's 2010 opponent who had come within 5 points of winning. Love also enjoys the backing of the Romney family and many top conservatives across the country.
2012 Republican National Convention Speech:
Conservative activists were enthused when Love was tapped to give a speech at the 2012 Republican National Convention. Highlights of he remarks:
"My parents immigrated to this country with ten dollars in their pocket, and the hope … that the America that they had heard about … really did exist. When tough times came, they didn’t look to Washington, they looked within."
"So the America I grew up knowing was centered in self reliance, and filled with the possibilities of living the American dream. The America I know is grounded in the determination found in patriots and pioneers, in small businesses with big ideals. It's found in the farmers who work in the beauty of our landscape, and our heroic military. It's found in the Olympic Athletes and every child who looks at the seemingly impossible and says, ' I can do that.' That is the America I know!"
