Mia Love takes national popularity
U.S. House candidate Mia Love’s prepared remarks yesterday at the Republican National Convention were only 298 words, though there was an intro video beforehand, but they were enough to set the media abuzz and label her a rising superstar.
Townhall spoke with Love less than 24 hours after her primetime debut, but the candidate seemed relatively unaffected by the media demand that followed her speech.
“I wasn’t focused on what the response was going to be from the media” – Love said, when asked if she had anticipated the aftermath of her remarks. “I wanted to get a message out. That message comes from Utah, comes from the 4th district, talks about the America we know, in the past, where we are, where we’re going in the future, and if we don’t change anything, we’re going to end up with an America that we don’t recognize.”
The responses, Love said, were voluminous, especially from Utah. She called yesterday “a good rallying day.”
Mia Love.
Rising Republican star Mia Love’s Wikipedia page was vandalized overnight with racist and sexist epithets.
The attack comes as Democrats and liberal media outlets criticize or downplay the GOP’s effort at showcasing diversity at their convention in Tampa.
Love (a Utah city mayor and congressional candidate who is black) delivered a brief but rousing address Tuesday night at the Republican National Convention. The daughter of Haitian immigrants told her family story, throwing in some jabs at President Obama’s “divided” America for good measure.
Bloggers were quick to spot some inflammatory changes to her Wikipedia page that night. Though the changes have since been removed, screen grabs posted to various websites show one section called her a “dirty, worthless whore” who sold out to big business. Another section again called her a “sell-out” to the “right wing hate machine,” before accusing her of being exploited “like the House N—– she truly is.”
Mia Love sees the campaign that President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden are conducting as “disrespectful,” quoting the so-called “war on women,” and Biden’s recent comments on the campaign trail when he told a crowd that Republicans “want to put ya’ll back in chains.”
“Well, when you think about it, let’s look at the ‘war on women,’ I mean, he’s tries to politically get women to vote for men” – the Utah congressional candidate said. “And if you think about Joe Biden’s comments: “They want to put ya’ll back in chains,” I think it’s absolutely disrespectful to the office that they hold. I deserve a president that sees me as a human being.”
But Love feels that her race won’t be a factor in her effort to become the Republican’s first African-American congresswoman, saying that her race and gender “doesn’t matter.”
Asked how the Republican Party reaches out to groups its struggling with like African Americans, Latinos, women, and young voters, Love said the GOP just needs to focus on what she says American’s care about, which is the economy.
“I think that what they need to do is continue doing what the Republicans are doing right now, what Mitt Romney is doing, and that’s focusing on the economy” – Love said. “That’s what people really care about.”