Mia Love Eyes Congressional Black Caucus (Video Interview)

By Abby Livingston and JM Rieger

Posted June 10, 2014 at 6:55am

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Former Saratoga Springs Mayor Mia Love, a safe bet to win her Utah House race this fall, expressed interest in joining the Congressional Black Caucus in a recent CQ Roll Call interview.

Currently, the CBC is comprised
completely
of Democrats . Love’s addition would give the group its first GOP member since Rep. Allen B. West, R-Fla., lost re-election in 2012.

“I think I will. I will consider joining because I think that in order to affect change, you can’t do it from the outside in,” Love said. “You have to do it from the inside out. I’m going to see if I can make a difference there.” Love would also be the first black Republican woman to serve in Congress, arriving on Capitol Hill with an outsized national following, especially for a House candidate. This bid is her second for Utah’s 4th District. She first challenged Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, in 2012, but the Democrat prevailed by a narrow margin in the solidly GOP district.

She frequently repeats that margin — 768 votes — in interviews and her campaign’s messaging, and she described herself as “a better candidate” this time around.

“It’s not like I woke up and said, ‘That last campaign was so much fun. Let’s go do that again,'” she said of her decision to run this cycle. “It pretty much was my children and my husband. My children kind of said to me, ‘Are you done? Are we not doing this again? When are we getting back in the race?'”

Ultimately, Matheson opted for retirement . Love was stunned: She heard the news at a grocery store and walked out of the place in a daze.

“For five minutes, I didn’t remember what I was buying,” she said. “I didn’t remember why I was there. I think I just kind of left everything.”

Rothenberg Political Report/Roll Call rated this race as Safe Republican .

The candidate’s team: Dave Hansen (campaign manager); y2analytics (polling); Creative Stream (media and direct mail)

Previous candidate interviews: