Mia Love, the first Black person elected to represent Utah and the first Black Republican woman to serve in Congress, died of glioblastoma on March 23, 2025. She was 49.
In a social media post, her family said Love was at home surrounded by family when she died.
“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,” her family wrote. “We are thankful for the many good wishes, prayers and condolences.”
At the beginning of March, Love’s family announced on social media that her cancer was no longer responding to treatment. Her daughter Abigale said then that their focus had shifted to enjoying the remaining time she had.
A few days later, in an open letter published in the Desert News, Love shared what she called her “living wish.”
“I am taking up my pen, not to say goodbye but to say thank you and express my living wish for you and the America I know,” she wrote. “My battle with brain cancer is coming to an end.”
Love was diagnosed in 2022 and publicly shared it a year later. At the time of the diagnosis, she was given about a year to live.
The daughter of Haitian immigrants, Love was born in New York and raised in Connecticut. There, in college, she met her husband who was in the state on a Latter-day Saint mission. They moved to Utah in the late 90s. Love embarked on her political career when she was elected to the Saratoga Springs City Council. She served from 2004 until 2010.
She then went on to lead Saratoga Springs, where she was the first Black woman mayor of a Utah city.
Her next political step was a run to represent Utah’s 4th Congressional District in 2012. She narrowly lost to Democrat Jim Matheson but returned in the next election to defeat Democrat Doug Owens — making history in the process.
In the years since entering politics, Love developed a close, personal friendshipwith Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson. They first met during Love’s run for mayor of Saratoga Springs in 2009. Henderson remembered her friend as someone who never defined herself by her “firsts.”
“She understood that she was breaking barriers and that she was first in a lot of those things, but she herself never leaned on that,” she said. “Other people did. She didn’t. So when people called her a rising star, it wasn’t because she was a Black female Republican, it was because she was really talented. She was a great speaker, she was good at what she did, and also she was those other things, but those other things were not what defined her.”
Love was in Congress for two terms until 2019, after being narrowly defeated by Democrat Ben McAdams. She was then a political commentator at CNN and even considered a run to reclaim her seat in 2020, but ultimately decided against it.
The 2018 campaign against McAdams was grueling for both candidates. Although McAdams said they were not close following the election, he was always struck by how well-liked Love was by people in Washington, even after leaving office.
“I think that is a lesson that all of us can learn, is that even though we may disagree and we may have stark differences of opinion with people, but at the end of the day, we’re all Americans, we’re all Utahns, and we’re all working together for the good of this country,” he said. “I think that’s something that she tried to embody and something that I respected her for.”
In her 2023 memoir, “Qualified: Finding Your Voice, Leading with Character, and Empowering Others,” she described “the rat race and chase of Congress.”
“If you have ever wondered if you were good enough, smart enough, Black or white enough, conservative or liberal enough, Congress will multiply and intensify those feelings,” she wrote about her time in Washington, D.C.
A member of the Congressional Black Caucus, Love was also on a House panel that investigated Planned Parenthood. She successfully got her first piece of legislation through the House in 2015. The bill, HR3791, raised the limits on how big a community bank could grow. The goal, Love told the Deseret News, was to increase the amount of credit available to provide more people with loans to open a small business or purchase their first home.
She also introduced legislation that would have prohibited the use of taxpayer funds to settle sexual misconduct against government employees. A defense billshe worked on also included protections for sexual assault survivors in the military.
While she was a Republican, Love did not shy away from criticizing President Donald Trump during his first term over his remarks on immigrants. In 2018, she called on Trump to apologize for his comments referring to Haiti — her ancestral home — and African nations as “shithole countries.”
“I can’t defend the indefensible,” she told CNN. She went on to say “it was difficult to hear” the president’s comments, especially because her parents, who came from Haiti and became U.S. citizens, were Trump supporters.
For Henderson, the strength and vision of Love’s parents was an incredible motivating force in Love’s life.
“I think her ability to translate her parent’s story into this inspiring promotion of the American Dream was really unique,” she said. ”It was something she believed deeply in and never, never once wavered in that belief in the promise and the possibility of the American Dream.”
Love and Trump’s relationship was frosty for the remainder of her time in Congress. After her defeat, Trump said she “gave me no love and she lost.” She wrote in her memoir that she felt Trump came after her for “not bowing to his ego or genuflecting to his arrogance and self-importance.”
“To have a President of the United States of America who seemed incapable of having relationships, only convenient transactions, mock you after a tough election loss, or call your ancestral home a shithole can be devastating, disconcerting and disappointing.”
Love and her family were honored by the Utah Legislature on March 5. Her family was on the floor of the House and Senate and she joined via a video call from her treatment center on the East Coast.
House Majority Leader Jefferson Moss served with Love on the Saratoga Springs City Council and shared that Love had a unique ability to “build a relationship with anyone.”
“She can reach across any boundary and find a way to make friends,” he said. “We went through a lot of really hard times together in a growing city, and I just appreciated her positive attitude, her optimism, her grace under pressure.”
Sen. Heidi Balderree is another long-time friend and shared that Love taught her to take risks and characterized Love as “a force of nature, unapologetically bold, endlessly passionate and radiating a light that has touched so many.”
“She has taught us to apply for the job, run for the office, make the move, take the trip, tackle the issue and stand up to the big guys, especially when others say that you can’t,” she said. “Because for Mia, the answer has always been to live boldly, love deeply, and take every opportunity that life presents.”
Love is survived by her husband, Jason, daughters Alessa and Abigale, son Peyton, and one grandchild. Her family said they will be sharing details about funeral services and a public celebration of her life in the coming days.
