Former Congresswoman Is Dying, Has Last Message for America

Mia Love, who became the first Black Republican woman in Congress when she was elected to the House of Representatives in 2014, is dying, and has taken to one of the newspapers from her home state of Utah to share an open letter with the country. Love, who was voted out of office in 2018 and went on to be a commentator for CNN, was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor in 2022, People reports. Earlier this month, Love's family announced that the cancer was no longer responding to treatment, the Hill reported at the time. In the Deseret News, Love, 49, writes that she wants "to say thank you and express my living wish for you and the America I know."

She writes that her parents, Haitian immigrants, taught her "to love this country, warts and all, and understand I had a role to play in our nation's future. I learned to passionately believe in the possibilities and promise of America." That America, she writes, is one where "self-reliance" brings freedom. "What makes America great is the idea that when government is limited and decisions are made closest to the people they impact, people are free—free to work, free to live, free to choose, free to fail and free to achieve," she writes. "The America I know is great—not because government made it great," she says, but because of ordinary citizens. Read her full piece here. (Love spoke out against President Trump during his first term, and Trump later took credit for her losing her seat.)