Former U.S. Representative Mia Love of Utah, the daughter of Haitian immigrants and the first Black Republican woman elected to Congress, passed away on Sunday at the age of 49. Her family shared the news of her passing on her X account. Love had been battling brain cancer and, earlier this month, her daughter revealed that she had stopped responding to treatment. She had been undergoing immunotherapy as part of a clinical trial at Duke University's brain tumor center.

Love began her political career in 2003 when she won a seat on the Saratoga Springs city council, a growing community about 30 miles south of Salt Lake City. She later became the city’s mayor. In 2012, she narrowly lost a congressional race against Democratic incumbent Jim Matheson in a district covering Salt Lake City suburbs. However, she ran again in 2014 and won, defeating first-time candidate Doug Owens by approximately 7,500 votes.

Though she did not emphasize her racial background during her campaigns, Love acknowledged the significance of her victory in 2014, proving critics wrong who doubted that a Black, Republican, Mormon woman could win in predominantly white Utah. At one point, she was seen as a rising GOP star, though she distanced herself from Donald Trump, who was unpopular among many Utah voters. During the 2016 election, after the release of a 2005 recording in which Trump made inappropriate comments about women, Love skipped the Republican National Convention and publicly stated she would not vote for him, instead endorsing Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who later dropped out.

While running for a third term in 2018, Love sought to distinguish herself from Trump on trade and immigration while still supporting key Republican policies such as tax cuts. Despite the strong Republican presence in her district, she lost to Democrat Ben McAdams by fewer than 700 votes. Following her defeat, Trump criticized her and other Republicans who had distanced themselves from him, saying, "Mia Love gave me no love, and she lost. Too bad. Sorry about that, Mia."

After leaving Congress, Love worked as a political commentator on CNN and served as a fellow at the University of Sydney. Despite her past criticisms of Trump, after his election in November, she accepted the outcome, acknowledging that while he often made offensive remarks, his policies had the potential to benefit all Americans.

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