Former Utah Congresswoman Mia Love has died

SALT LAKE CITY — Mia Love, wife, mother, mayor and the first Black Republican woman in the U.S. House of Representatives, died at home of glioblastoma multiforme brain cancer on Sunday surrounded by her family.

When Love was originally diagnosed in March 2022, she was given a prognosis of 10 to 15 months. She lived two years past that prognosis. She was 49 at the time of her death.

Love Family: 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. She was in her home surrounded by family. In the midst of a celebration of her life and an avalanche of happy… pic.twitter.com/YzhAuH1l9x

— Mia Love (@MiaBLove) March 24, 2025

Her family announced her death on social media: "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."

On March 11, after news that her brain cancer was no longer responding to treatment, she wrote an open letter expressing her "living wish" for the America she knew and loved, quipping that couching the column as a "dying wish" felt a little dramatic, even for a drama person like her.

"What I know," she wrote, "is that the goodness and compassion of the American people is a multiplier that simply cannot be measured. The goodness and greatness of our country is multiplied when neighbors help neighbors, when we reach out to those in need and build better citizens and more heroic communities.

"I still passionately believe that we can revive the American story we know and love," and that "we must fight to keep the America we know as that shining city on a hill," she urged.

Early life

In Love's autobiography, "Qualified," she shared her family's journey from Haiti to the United States. Her father, Jean Maxime Bourdeau, ran from the Tonton Macoute, a "special operations unit" (thugs) for both "Papa Doc" and "Baby Doc" Duvalier in Haiti. At age 14, he hid in an open sewer pipe all night long. His mother was certain he was dead, and her terrified eyes when he returned home instilled in him a desire for freedom. He came to the United States and a couple of years later, his wife, Mary Bourdeau, joined him. Love was born in New York City on Dec. 6, 1975.

When she was 5, her family moved to Norwalk, Connecticut. She graduated from Norwalk High School, where she began developing her voice. She had impressive vocal abilities that her time in high school allowed her to use in new ways. Love then went on to the University of Hartford, where she graduated with a degree in musical theater.

Political beginnings

A convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Love moved to Utah while she worked as a flight attendant. She married Jason Love, and they began to build their family, becoming parents to three children: Alessa, Abigale and Peyton. It was after moving into a new home in the small-but-growing community of Saratoga Springs that Love first got involved in local politics — and it was all about the midges (little flying aquatic bugs) covering the walls, windows and doors in their home.

After the neighborhood builder refused to spray for the bugs, she spearheaded a moms' group that started posting signs in their yards warning prospective buyers to stay away. It worked. Within just a few weeks, the builder agreed to spray in exchange for the moms taking down their signs.

From that beginning, she said she recognized that she could be "part of the solution to problems and challenges facing my friends, neighbors and community." She ran for her city council in 2003 and won. She won a second term in 2007, and in 2009 she ran to be mayor of Saratoga Springs, a race she also won.

Running for Congress

While serving as mayor, a new congressional district was created following the 2010 census that included Saratoga Springs. Love stepped up to run. She was not the favored candidate in the race that included then-Utah House members Carl Wimmer and Steve Sandstrom. There was no alternate path to the ballot.

Love would have to get at least 40% of the delegate vote to advance to a primary. If a candidate got 60% of the vote, then there would be no primary. She delivered a speech that had the delegates on their feet cheering, and not only did she make it through to the second round of voting, but she had the lead, with 53% of the delegate vote to Wimmer's 31%. On the second round of voting, she received more than 70% of the vote.

With momentum at her back and support already locked in from some of Washington's power players, Love leaned in to running against incumbent Congressman Jim Matheson, who had been switched from the 2nd Congressional District to the 4th.

Love lost that election by 768 votes, but ran again in 2014 and won by more than 7,000 votes. During her two terms in Congress, she joined the Congressional Black Caucus as the only Republican. She learned that listening to others really helped her understand how different lived experiences help shape different political philosophies.

Rep. Cedric Richmond, a Democrat from Louisiana, asked Love why she was a Republican. She shared with him her parents' story of a brutal and oppressive federal government, how serving on the city council and as mayor had helped shaped her views that the "best government" is the one closest to the people. She said she was always for "bigger people and less government."

By contrast, Richmond's experience growing up in Alabama was with local government that created problems for Black people there. She shared his experience in her autobiography. Richmond said:

"It was the local authorities in Alabama that wouldn't allow Black people to vote. It was the local police officers that were beating our families, our uncles, our aunts, our mothers, and our fathers with clubs, throwing them in jail and whipping them on the streets. Doing all this as they attempted to march peacefully for progress, dignity, and equality. The people I cared about were beaten up by the local government, and it was actually the federal government that stepped in to protect them.

"I don't have as much faith in local governments as you have," he concluded.

Defending Haiti

After President Donald Trump called Haiti a (expletive) country in Jan. 2018, Rep. Love snapped back: "I've been a Republican longer than he has." She also called on him to apologize.

"The president's comments are unkind, divisive, elitist and fly in the face of our nation's values. This behavior is unacceptable from the leader of our nation," she said at the time.

She spoke, as she often did, of her parents who became U.S. citizens, and said, "They never took a thing from our federal government. They worked hard, paid taxes and rose from nothing to take care of and provide opportunities for their children. They taught their children to do the same. That's the American dream."

The America she knew and loved was also an America that welcomed diversity.

In her book "Qualified," she used the metaphor of a salad to describe the nation's diversity.

"My story is deeply rooted in the American Dream. I actually love the idea that America really shouldn't be a melting pot but instead should be a salad bowl. I do love a good salad! The salad bowl is really quite instructive because the ingredients, while coming together, never lose their identities or stories. The tomato remains a tomato, the crispness of the cucumber continues, the flavor of the onions does not disappear, and the color of carrots stays bright. The lettuce doesn't need to hide itself, and the spinach doesn't need to transform into a blueberry. Each of the ingredients keeps its unique story; the ingredients do not try to become something else. We need more of that in America."

After Love left Congress, she went to work for CNN as a commentator. She also served as a nonresidential senior fellow to The United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. In 2020, Love was appointed a fellow of the Institute of Politics and Public Service at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University, and in June 2021, Love joined the Center for Growth and Opportunity at Utah State University. Later that year, Love had a stint as part of a rotating group of conservative guest hosts on the ABC daytime talk show "The View."

Diagnosis

Love was on vacation with her family in Puerto Rico in early 2022 when she experienced the worst headache of her life. She said it felt like two ice picks stabbing into her brain, which led her to the hospital emergency room. After a series of X-rays, the doctor pointed to a dark area and asked, "Was that there before?" It was a tumor in her brain.

Love returned home to Utah to have surgery, which removed about 95% of the tumor. She knew she would have to follow up with chemotherapy and radiation, but remained hopeful that the tumor was perhaps benign.

Then, the biopsy results came back. The tumor was not benign. It was a Grade 4, fast-growing tumor. Glioblastoma multiforme, the same type of brain cancer that took the lives of Sens. Ted Kennedy and John McCain and former President Joe Biden's son, Beau Biden. Love said she was given 10 to 15 months to live.

"I would believe the diagnosis," she said, "but I would not believe the prognosis," she told young Latter-day Saints at a YSA Area Conference held in downtown Salt Lake City in 2023.

Love was able to enter a clinical trial at Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke University in North Carolina. She was the third person admitted to the immunotherapy trial, overseen by Dr. Henry Friedman, a neuro-oncologist and deputy director of the center. The experimental treatments involved using her body's own immune system to attack the tumor. For a while, her tumor shrank. As she started the immunotherapy treatments, her doctor told her he was not trying to just keep the cancer at bay. He said he was aiming to cure her.

In May 2024, Love did an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper, sharing more of her story and diagnosis. Dr. Friedman was interviewed by Tapper and said, "The single most important thing we offered her is hope."

Tapper concluded the segment by saying that while the treatment was currently working to keep the tumor from growing, "It's too soon to know just how long this will continue working."

Just over three weeks ago, on March 1, Love's daughter Abigale posted on her mother's social media accounts that "her cancer is no longer responding to treatment and the cancer is progressing. We have shifted our focus from treatment to enjoying our remaining time with her." On March 6, the Utah Legislature honored Love's contributions to the state and the nation by issuing a formal citation in honor of her service. Love's family members were at the state Capitol, while Love was able to attend virtually.

Love is survived by her husband, Jason Love; her daughters, Alessa Lincoln and Abigale; her son, Peyton; one granddaughter; her parents; and many other family members and friends. Funeral arrangements are pending.

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