On Tuesday, Utah Republican Mia Love made history by becoming the first black Republican woman elected to Congress after narrowly defeating Democrat Doug Owens 50 percent to 47 percent in a House race.
"This is a great night for our nation. It is especially a great night for Utah," Love told supporters shortly after her victory was decided. "Many of the naysayers out there said that Utah would never elect a black, Republican, LDS woman to Congress. And guess what? Not only did we do it, we were the first to do it," reports the Wall Street Journal.
According to the Journal, Love, who lost her first attempt to gain a seat in the House of Representatives in 2012, losing to Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson, is a Haitian American who converted to Mormonism. The former mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah, burst onto the national scene after her speech at the 2012 Republican National Convention, where she was anointed the next big star by GOP brass.
Love told @This Hour on CNN that her victory should not be attributed to her skin color or gender: "This had nothing to do with race. Understand that Utahans have made a statement that they are not interested in dividing Americans based on race or gender, that they want to make sure that they are electing people who are honest, who have integrity, who can go out and represent the values that they hold dear, and that is really what made history here," Love said. "It's that race, gender had nothing to do with it. Principles had everything to do with it, and Utah values had everything to do with it."
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Read more at the Wall Street Journal.