WASHINGTON — When Mia Love ran for Congress last year in Utah’s Fourth District, she seemed to have everything going for her: a compelling personal story, national recognition and a speaking spot at the Republican National Convention.
She was also running against the lone Democrat in the delegation of the deep red state of Utah. But Love narrowly lost to Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson. This year, Love is running again, and while the candidate and the message are the same, this is the Mia Love for Congress campaign 2.0.
“We were in a cycle where there was a gubernatorial race, an AG race, a Senate race, congressional races, and a presidential race, and so when I got into the race, there was nobody left,” Love explained to The Daily Caller in an interview here earlier this month, recounting how she assembled her campaign team. “And we had a campaign that didn’t know what they were doing, including me. … And we had zero name recognition.”
Last cycle, Love’s got a new campaign team after the Republican convention, when she was chosen as the nominee. This time, she said, “all of that has changed. Along with my ten years of experience on a municipal level, I also have experience as a candidate. I’ve got a great team, a great campaign team. We’re outraising my opponent two to one, and so we’re doing well.”
That team includes Dave Hansen, a former state GOP Chairman who was the top strategist for Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch’s successful re-election campaign last year, who was sitting in the room while Love spoke to The Daily Caller.
As of last quarter, Love had outraised Matheson $1,109,696 to $823,722, though the two had roughly equal amounts of cash on hand: $678,418 for Matheson and $671,842 for Love.
That, Love says, means she will be able to get her message and her name out there, on airwaves that will not be crowded with ads for a variety of other races.
“We were playing catch up last time,” Love said. “I was up against somebody who had a million plus in the bank.”
This time, she says, they are raising money, and she takes a knock at Matheson’s donors: “My donors are individual donors,” she says, “whereas his are PAC donors. So this is a grassroots campaign. So things are different and we’ll be able to have the resources to get our message out.”
Love is also the only Republican challenging Matheson. Last year, she was one of three, and while she emerged victorious from the convention, there was plenty of opposition research going around before that, some of which made it into Democratic attack ads. This year, Love said, it is nice to not “have Republicans beating up on each other.”
But Love herself and her message are the same.
Love is the daughter of Haitian immigrants, who moved to Brooklyn. She joined the Mormon church and moved to Utah, where she became the first black female mayor in the state, serving as mayor of Saratoga Springs. She would be the first black female Republican to serve in Congress.
Matheson, however, has survived as Utah’s lone Democratic member of Congress for a reason: He’s a good campaigner, a member of a prominent family in Utah politics — and a moderate, often voting with Republicans. For instance, he was one of only two Democrats to vote with Republicans to defund Obamacare leading up to the government shutdown, a vote he said he took because while he felt attaching defunding the health-care law to the bill that would fund the government was a bad idea, “I believe we should avoid shutting down the government, and I voted for a continuing resolution to keep the legislative process working toward that end today.”
Asked how she could beat Matheson in light of that, Love knocked what she called his lack of influence.
“He doesn’t have any influence, unfortunately — doesn’t have any influence on the Democratic side, let alone the Republican side — to actually get anything done,” she said.
“He’s a nice guy, he comes from a great family, but unfortunately he lacks the ability to get anything done,” she added.
Love says that even as a freshman member of congress she thinks she would be able to succeed at getting things done, pointing to her experience as mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah. She acknowledges that being one of 435 members of Congress is different from being the sole executive, but she insists the basic tenets are the same.
“The principles are the same. It’s about working with people, it’s about inspiring people, it’s about looking over at my other council members and saying, ‘what are your thoughts? What are your ideas?’ The principles are the same… Those types of things are the same things that need to happen in Washington,” Love said.
“I’m not interested in having a debate,” Love added. “I’m interested in solving problems.”
One such problem, Love says, is Obamacare.
“Any chance that we have to replace it, to repeal it, to defund it, we should absolutely do that,” she said. “It’s a disaster.”
Love says she wants to “do everything we can to get rid of that — at least, if we can’t do that, at least have a moratorium and say hold off,” she said.
The subject of immigration has a particular resonance for Love, whose parents immigrated legally from Haiti.
“I think that we need to address it. The reason why people are here illegally is because our policies are broken. It is easier to be here illegally than it is to be here legally,” Love said. Immigration reform has stalled after the Senate passed a comprehensive immigration reform package this summer, a package which met resistance in the House, and it is unlikely to be dealt with before the end of this year. Love says that before Congress takes up the question of immigration reform, a few things need to happen: the borders must be secured and monitored, the government must keep track of who is coming into and leaving the U.S. Also, she says, there needs to be a uniform law of naturalization.
“Congress’s job is creating a way in, a legal way in. It is too difficult. People are finding it very difficult to come and be in this country without it taking years and a lot of money,” she said.
“My dad said something very interesting to me and it means a lot to me. He said, ‘Mia, when I came over and I was applying to be a legal citizen in the United States,’ he said, ‘I learned about American history; I learned how to speak the English language; and when I pledged my allegiance to the American flag for the first time I knew what I was saying and I meant every word of it,'” she recounted.
“I am a product of legal immigration,” Love went on. “My parents were able to come in legally, and I was born in this country, and I have all of the opportunities. And I am proud of my parents and the sacrifices they made to come to this country.”