Former Utah Rep. Mia Love, America’s first Black Republican congresswoman, dies of cancer at 49

Mia Love, who made history as the nation’s first Black Republican congresswoman as well as the first Black woman to serve as a mayor in Utah and to represent the state in Washington, D.C., died peacefully at home with family on Sunday after battling glioblastoma multiforme brain cancer. She was 49.

In her political journey, which emphasized keeping government small and decision-making local, Love rarely shone a spotlight on her race or gender. The daughter of Haitian-American immigrants, she did, however, celebrate her family’s legacy of hard work and self-reliance, often quoting her father’s insistence that they “never take a handout,” and instead do all they could to give back.

Love was the wife of Jason Love and the mother of three children, Alessa, Abigale and Peyton.

In a social media post Sunday night, Love’s family said she quietly passed away “in the midst of a celebration of her life and an avalanche of happy memories.” A flood of condolences and tributes followed. 

The news came just over three weeks after Love’s daughter posted on Love’s X account, which had been quiet since September, that as her mother’s cancer had stopped responding to treatment and was spreading, the family was focused on enjoying the time they had left with her.

Days later, Love’s husband and children visited both the Utah House and Senate during the state’s legislative session, carrying a tablet to connect Love via video as she was honored.

Love revealed in 2023 a diagnosis that was expected to take her life in months, but that she said was kept at bay through exceptional medical care and profound faith. This month, she published in the Deseret News what she wrote was her “living wish for America,” rather than a dying one, celebrating the freedom and opportunity she sees in the country that is made possible not by government, but by good people. 

Born Ludmya Bourdeau, “Mia” for short, Love was born Dec. 6, 1975, in Brooklyn, New York, just over a year after her parents, Jean Maxime and Marie Bourdeau, escaped the regime of Haitian dictator François “Papa Doc” Duvalier and came to the United States, according to her U.S. House of Representatives archive biography.

After gaining citizenship and being reunited with Love’s two older siblings, who had initially remained in Haiti, the Bourdeaus moved to Norwalk, Connecticut, in 1981. In high school there, Love developed a love of theater. She went on to earn a fine arts degree at the University of Hartford in West Hartford, Connecticut. 

She joined The Church of Jesus of Latter-day Saints and moved to Utah, where she married Jason Love. 

It was local issues in her home of Saratoga Springs, Utah, that drew Love into politics. She was elected to the City Council in 2003 and became mayor in 2009. 

In 2012, Love challenged six-term incumbent Democrat Jim Matheson for Utah’s 4th Congressional District seat, losing by just 768 votes in a three-way race that included Libertarian Jim Vein. She had declared plans to run again when Matheson announced he wouldn’t seek reelection. She narrowly defeated Democrat Doug Owens in 2014, then won reelection against Owens by a slightly wider margin in 2016.

During her two terms in the House, Love’s bio notes that she rarely appended her own proposals to the omnibus legislative packages and short-term funding deals that dominated Congress’ work, saying “I tend to stay to myself — I do these things on my own.”

She also joined the Congressional Black Caucus, which at the time was made up entirely of Democrats, after criticizing the group during her campaigns. 

In 2018, Love lost her reelection bid in a close race with Democrat Ben McAdams, Salt Lake County mayor. McAdams was unseated after one term by Republican Rep. Burgess Owens.

Love went on to finish her career as a political media commentator. She authored a memoir, “Qualified,” that was released in early 2023 detailing her upbringing, faith journey and time in government.