The best way for young people to deal with the poor job market is to get into politics, said Mia Love, the Republican candidate in Utah’s 4th Congressional District, at a bloggers breakfast Thursday morning.
Asked by a father if she had advice for young people looking for jobs, she said, “When we get the young voters involved in politics then, I think, we’ll have a bigger base in terms of people who are concerned about their future.”
If elected, Love, the daughter of Haitian immigrants, would be the first black Republican woman in Congress. After college, she moved to Utah and converted to Mormonism. She is challenging incumbent Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson.
On Thursday Love stressed the need to rein in government spending, saying that she was dedicated to repealing President Barack Obama’s health care reform law and getting the United States back on a stable fiscal path, but she spoke largely in generalities.
Love named the Department of Energy and the Department of Education as possibilities for fiscal pruning, but would not commit to cutting specific programs within those departments.
Asked about voter identification laws, Love said, “I haven’t really formed too much of an opinion… I try and stay within my realms of things I’m trying to focus on and concentrate on.”
“I try and stay within the debt spending, the deficit spending areas,” Love added, “and making our country energy independent.”
Love, the mayor of Saratoga Springs, won the Republican nomination in April and has gained major endorsements, including from Mitt Romney’s wife, Ann. (SEE ALSO: Super PAC attacks Rep. Matheson on Obamacare vote)
When asked about her experience as a black conservative, Love responded: “I am no victim. I don’t remember a time where somebody did something to me because of my color or my race, and I think it’s because I don’t assume people do things to me because of my color or my race.”