07-04-2025
Former US representative Mia Love honored in Utah after brain cancer death
State lawmakers and members of the public visited the Utah Capitol on Sunday evening to pay their respects at Love's flag-covered coffin behind ropes in the building's rotunda.
The public is invited to attend her memorial service Monday morning at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Institute of Religion on the University of Utah campus. It will be followed by an honor guard presentation.
Get Starting Point
A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday.
Enter Email
Sign Up
Love, born Ludmya Bourdeau, represented Utah on Capitol Hill from 2015 to 2019. She and her husband, Jason, had three children, Alessa, Abigale and Peyton.
Advertisement
She was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2022 and said her doctors estimated she had only 10 to 15 months to live, which she surpassed. With aggressive treatments, Love lived for about three years after receiving her diagnosis.
Love entered politics in 2003 after winning a seat on the city council in Saratoga Springs, 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Salt Lake City. She was elected as the city's mayor in 2009, becoming the first Black woman to serve as a mayor in Utah.
Advertisement
In 2012, after giving a rousing speech at the Republican National Convention, she narrowly lost a bid for the U.S. House against the Democratic incumbent. She ran again two years later and defeated a first-time candidate by about 7,500 votes.
Love did not emphasize her race during her campaigns, but she acknowledged the significance of her election after her 2014 victory. She said her win defied naysayers who suggested a Black, Republican, Mormon woman could not win a congressional seat in overwhelmingly white Utah.
She was briefly considered a rising star in the GOP, but her power within the party fizzled out as President Donald Trump took hold. Love kept her distance from Trump and called him out in 2018 for vulgar comments he made about immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and some African nations. Later that year, she lost in the midterm elections as Democrats surged.
