OAN Staff James Meyers
1:38 PM – Monday, March 24, 2025
Following her battle with cancer, former U.S. Representative Mia Love passed away at the age of 49 on Sunday.
The Republican (R-Utah), who was the daughter of Haitian immigrants and is known for being the first Black Republican woman elected to Congress, “passed away peacefully” surrounded by her family in Saratoga Springs, Utah.
“With grateful hearts filled to overflowing for the profound influence of Mia on our lives, we want you to know that she passed away peacefully today,” Love’s family said in a statement posted to X. “She was in her home surrounded by family.”
“In the midst of a celebration of her life and an avalanche of happy memories, Mia quietly slipped the bands of mortality and, as her words and vision always did, soared heavenward,” the family continued. “We are thankful for the many good wishes, prayers and condolences. We are taking some time as a family and will provide information about funeral services and a public celebration of her life in the days to come.”
Utah Governor Spencer Cox (R-Utah) said Love was a “true friend” and said her legacy of service was an inspiration to everyone who knew her.
Love had been undergoing treatment for brain cancer and received immunotherapy as part of a clinical trial at Duke University’s brain tumor center. However, her daughter said earlier this month that the former congresswoman was no longer responding to it.
She started politics in 2003 after winning a seat on the city council in Saratoga Springs, which is a community just outside of Salt Lake City. Later on she became the city’s Mayor.
In 2012, she barely lost a bid for the House against Democrat incumbent, former Representative Jim Matheson, in a district that covers the Salt Lake City suburbs. She ran again two years later and defeated first-time candidate Doug Owens by close to 7,500 votes.
After her 2014 victory, she said the win defied what critics had suggested that a Black, Republican, Mormon woman couldn’t win a congressional seat in an overwhelmingly White Utah.
In the leadup to the 2016 presidential elections, Love was considered by most experts as a rising star in the Republican party.
Earlier this month, a published op-ed by Deseret News revealed that Love wanted America as a country to become less divisive. In the piece she also thanked all those who prayed for her and her medical team that took care of her.
Love said her parents immigrated to the U.S. with $10 in their pocket and a belief that hard work would lead to success. She said she was raised to believe passionately in the American dream and “to love this country, warts and all.”
She also urged elected politicians to lead with compassion and communicate honestly with their colleagues.
“In the end, I hope that my life will have mattered and made a difference for the nation I love and the family and friends I adore,” Love wrote. “I hope you will see the America I know in the years ahead, that you will hear my words in the whisper of the wind of freedom and feel my presence in the flame of the enduring principles of liberty. My living wish and fervent prayer for you and for this nation is that the America I have known is the America you fight to preserve.”
As the tragic news became a reality, politicians offered their condolences.
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