Mia Love

Love was hired by CNN as a political commenter in 2019.

In January 2019, Love joined CNN as a political commentator.

Love was challenged by Salt Lake County Mayor, Democrat Ben McAdams in 2018. In June 2018, CNN stated that the race was considered "consequential to both parties" because Love had "stood up to [President Donald Trump] on immigration" and "because national Democrats [saw] McAdams as one of their best chances to gain a foothold on red turf."

For two weeks after the election, the race was too close to call but McAdams was declared the winner on November 20, 2018, defeating Love by 694 votes. The margin was .258%, barely over the .25% threshold that would have permitted Love to request a recount.

In March 2018, Love became a supporter of creating federal laws against pyramid schemes. She also supported adding multi-vitamins to the list of items that could be purchased with food stamps. Love has called on the U.S. Department of Education to allow state regulation of student loan providers.

In May 2018, a defense bill included language that was co-authored by Love. The language required the military to evaluate the effects of military policies on investigating service members who bring charges of sexual assault.

Also in the spring of 2018, Love signed a discharge petition seeking to force a floor vote on four immigration-related bills. One of the four bills would have prevented the deportation of undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children. This time period actually saw Love advocating on several fronts in relation to immigration. She also was the co-leader with Pramila Jayapal of an effort to keep in place rules that allowed accompanying spouses of H-4 Visa holders to have work authorization while in the United States.

In May 2018, Love's Small Bank Holding Company Relief Act became law.

In 2018 Love joined with Democrats in seeking to force immigration-related legislation to a vote on the house floor. In June 2018 she specifically denounced the Trump administration's separation of children from their parents when they crossed into the US under some circumstances.

In December 2017, Love introduced the Stop Taxpayers Obligations to Perpetrators of Sexual Harassment Act. Passed by the U.S. House in February 2018, the bill would prevent members of Congress from settling sexual harassment claims with taxpayer money.

Love opposes abortion. In a speech at the 2017 March for Life, she said her parents, immigrants from Haiti, considered aborting her but decided not to do so.

Love ran for re-election in 2016. She again defeated Democrat Doug Owens in the general election with 54% of the vote, over 12 points ahead of Owens. David Scott, a Democratic Representative from Georgia, had given $1,000 to Love's campaign.

In April 2016, Love got her first bill through the U.S. House. Bill HR3791, which was approved in a 247–171 vote, raised limits on how large community banks can grow; Love asserted that the move would make more credit available.

For the 2016 election season, Love received about $63,000 in donations from gun lobbyists and was endorsed by the National Rifle Association.

On October 8, 2016, Love issued a statement that she would not vote for Republican nominee Donald Trump in the presidential election, urging him to withdraw from the race for the good of the party and the country. In early 2018, Love joined other Utah political leaders in expressing opposition to President Trump's proposed tariffs on steel and aluminum. According to political polling and reporting website FiveThirtyEight, Love's votes aligned with Trump's positions around 96% of the time during the 115th Congress.

With the start of the 2015 Congress, Love was appointed to the House Financial Services Committee. Love joined the Congressional Black Caucus after taking her seat. While campaigning in 2012, Love had said that if elected, she would "join the Congressional Black Caucus and try to take that thing apart from the inside out." She described the mainly Democratic Caucus as characterized by "demagoguery. They sit there and ignite emotions and ignite racism when there isn't. They use their positions to instill fear. Hope and change is turned into fear and blame. Fear that everybody is going to lose everything and blaming Congress for everything instead of taking responsibility." She later acknowledged the bonds created with fellow caucus members. "As the only female Republican member of the Congressional Black Caucus, I have the opportunity every day to work across the aisle on issues that are divisive but important," she said. "My faith and my belief in the humanity of every one of God's children helps me to work with my Congressional Black Caucus colleagues on important issues like criminal justice reform."

In May 2015, she was a lead sponsor along with Duncan D. Hunter of HR 2518 the Student Right to Know Before You Go Act, designed to increase the amount of information universities and colleges are required to provide prospective students.

In October 2015, Love was named to serve on the Select Investigative Panel on Planned Parenthood.

She also supports cutting taxes. She supported cuts to foreign aid and tort reform. Love supported the March 2015 budget, which required an increase in federal employee contributions to their retirement funds. She has promoted the work of the libertarian Cato Institute.

In early 2014 Love was made a member of the Republican National Committee's National Advisory Council on African-American outreach. On April 26, 2014 Love won the Republican nomination for the 4th congressional district at the Utah Republican Convention, with 78% of the vote at the convention. The Democratic Party nominee was Doug Owens, son of former 4th District four term-Democratic Representative Wayne Owens. On election day, Owens led Love in the vote count until late in the evening, when she pulled ahead and ultimately won by more than 7,000 votes. Reacting to her victory, Love took a shot at the media's perceived obsession with identity politics, joking to her supporters: "Many of the naysayers out there said that Utah would never elect a black, Republican, LDS woman to Congress. Not only did we do it, we were the first to do it."

In March 2013, Love said she was seriously considering another run against Matheson. In May 2013 she announced she would run in 2014. As of July 2013, Love had raised over $475,000 for her campaign. Love was an opening speaker at the 2013 Western Conservative Summit. She spoke of the need for increased grassroots organization in the GOP, and the need to be independent from the government.

In August 2013, Love was chosen by Newsmax as an "Up and Comer" in their list of top "25 Influential Women of the GOP", given her visible position as a young black female Republican. In November 2013, Love acknowledged the growing consensus that the Tea Party needed to shift away from being the "party of no", disagreeing with its part in forcing a federal government shutdown over the budget. She later reiterated her support for the philosophy of the Tea Party and many of its leaders, including Utah Sen. Mike Lee.

On December 17, 2013, Matheson announced that he would not run for re-election. Love was ranked as the favored candidate due to her name recognition and characteristics of the district. In early October 2014, the National Journal listed Utah's 4th district as the number one most likely district to change hands in November.

Love ran in Utah's 4th congressional district, which was created after the 2010 Census. She competed for the Republican nomination against attorney Jay Cobb and State Reps. Stephen Sandstrom of Orem and Carl Wimmer of Herriman; she won the nomination on April 21, 2012, at the 2012 Utah Republican Party Convention with over 70 percent of the vote. On December 15, 2011, six-term Democratic 2nd district incumbent Jim Matheson announced that he would run for the newly created seat in the 4th congressional district, meaning there would be an open-seat race for the 2nd district. Due to redistricting, the 2nd district race was not expected to be competitive for Democrats, due to its losing many of its reliably Democratic constituents.

Nationally, Love received campaign support from 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and his wife Ann Romney, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, House Budget Committee Chairman and 2012 Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan, and Speaker of the House John Boehner. Then-Congressman Jason Chaffetz (UT-3), a Republican, declined to give her his primary endorsement.

In 2012, National Journal named Love one of ten Republicans to follow on Twitter. When speaking to the 2012 Republican National Convention on August 28, 2012, she discussed lessons learned from her parents, immigrants from Haiti who fled political repression. She said, "Mr. President, I am here to tell you we are not buying what you are selling in 2012." In September 2012, questions arose about her parents' immigrant status. Forbes investigated a claim in an article that month in Mother Jones that no law existed in 1976 that would have allowed Love's parents to become citizens of the United States after her birth. Forbes found that immigrants who had been residents of the Western Hemisphere could get long-term residency permits (green cards) if they had a child born in the United States. Mother Jones issued a correction. In an October 2012 interview, her father said that Mia's birth as a U.S. citizen was key to him and his wife gaining permanent legal status and ultimately citizenship.

Love has a 2% lifetime score from the League of Conservation Voters. In 2012, Love said she would focus on opposing federal regulations, particularly those set by the Environmental Protection Agency. She supports the building of the Keystone XL pipeline. In 2014, she said she opposed the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions. By 2017, however, she had become a member of the Climate Solutions Caucus and stated that climate policies and economic growth are not mutually exclusive. Love supports Utah's effort to reclaim public land from federal agency controls.

In her 2012 campaign, Love proposed dramatically reducing food entitlement spending like free school lunches and food assistance to pregnant mothers and the poor. She defended these proposed cuts by saying people who are poor will become dependent if they don't work for their food.

Love believes that the federal government should have less power. Love was described as a Tea Party conservative in 2012. In a 2015 article titled "How 'tea party' is Mia Love?", the Washington Post wrote that "Love's rhetoric from 2012 to 2014 changed a bit, even as her policy positions remained fairly constant" and noted that Love had "angered some conservatives when she questioned the tea party driven government shutdown in 2013 over Obamacare." A blogger for libertarian-leaning magazine Reason described her as a "Trojan horse libertarian" due to her stance on homeschooling, federal control of land, and other issues.

In the lame-duck session of the 115th Congress, Love missed 71 out of 85 votes. She attributed her absence to her need to care for a sick child. It was more than any other congressperson who lost reelection and far more than any of the three other members of Utah's congressional delegation.

A Haitian American, Love was the first black female Republican elected to Congress. Love was born to Haitian parents in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. She was elected mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah in 2010, having previously served on its City Council. Love spoke at the 2012 Republican National Convention. In 2012, Love ran for Congress in Utah's 4th congressional district, losing narrowly to incumbent Democratic Party U.S. Representative Jim Matheson. Love ran for Congress again and was elected in 2014, defeating Democratic opponent Doug Owens; she fended off Owens a second time to win re-election in 2016. She ran for re-election in 2018, but was defeated by Democrat Ben McAdams, losing by 694 votes out of almost 270,000.

After six years on the Council, Love was elected mayor, winning with 861 votes to 594 for her opponent Jeff Francom. She served from January 2010 to January 2014. During her term, Love led the city in dealing with natural disasters, including a wildfire, followed shortly afterward by a severe mudslide.

In 2003 Love won a seat on the Saratoga Springs City Council. She was the first female Haitian-American elected official in Utah County; she took office in January 2004. During an economic downturn, as part of the city council Love approved a transition from the agriculture tax to municipal tax. She worked with other city council members to cut expenses, reducing the city's shortfall during the economic downturn from $3.5 million to $779,000. Saratoga Springs now has the highest possible bond rating for a city of its size.

After college, she worked at Sento Corporation and the Echopass Corporation. She was also a flight attendant with Continental Airlines. She moved to Utah in 1998 after converting to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and while working for Continental. There she married Jason Love.

Raised a Roman Catholic, Love joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after graduating from college in 1998. While working as a flight attendant, she moved to Utah as part of her work. She also wanted to be closer to a temple and to learn more about her faith. There she got to know Jason Love, whom she had met previously when he was an LDS missionary in Connecticut.

The two were married in December 1998, four months after their first date. When first married, the Loves lived in American Fork. They have three children.

Love began to be active in civic affairs when she served as the community spokesperson in Saratoga Springs, Utah in an effort to persuade the developer of her neighborhood to spray against flies. The city of 18,000 near Salt Lake City was established in 1997 and has had rapid growth.

Love's birth enabled her parents to gain a U.S. residency permit (green card) under an immigration law that favored immigrants from the Western Hemisphere who had a child born in the United States; the law expired in January of 1976, just 25 days after Love's birth. They later became naturalized citizens.

Ludmya "Mia" Love (née Bourdeau; December 6, 1975) is an American political commenter and politician who served as the U.S. Representative for Utah's 4th congressional district from 2015 to 2019.

Love was born Ludmya Bourdeau on December 6, 1975, in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, the daughter of Mary and Jean Maxine Bourdeau. At a time of political repression, her parents emigrated together from Haiti in 1973, leaving their two older children behind with family. Her father had been threatened by the Tonton Macoute, the secret police in Haiti, and her parents traveled to the United States on a tourist visa. They spoke no English when they arrived. Her father became a paint-company manager and her mother worked as a nurse.