Free Republic

Mia Love was supposed to be the first black Republican woman in Congress. The daughter of Haitian immigrants, Love was the mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah, a recently-incorporated, fast-growing suburb of Salt Lake City. She had a newly redrawn Congressional district that put six-term Congressman Jim Matheson, a Blue Dog Democrat and a member of a politically prominent Utah Mormon family, in a precarious position. She had a big-time spot as a speaker at the Republican National Convention. She had Republican All-Stars like Condoleeza Rice, John Boehner, Paul Ryan, and Mitt Romney raising money and programming robocalls for her. And...

In her bid to become the first black Republican woman elected to Congress, Mia Love is the GOP's emblem of diversity this campaign year. She's reluctant to embrace the role, saying she doesn't let race or gender define her politics. The 36-year-old mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah, points to her policy stances as the reason for her success. "I was elected mayor not because of my race or gender, not because I wear high heels, but because of the policies I put in place," Love said in a recent interview. Polling shows Love with a slight lead over Democratic Rep....

One of Utah's largest newspapers, located in the heart of Mormon country, has endorsed President Obama over Republican challenger Mitt Romney. The Salt Lake Tribune endorsed Mr. Obama on Friday in an editorial that praised the president for engineering passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to stimulate the economy and accused Mr. Romney of flip-flopping and being "willing to say anything to get elected." The paper acknowledged that their choice may be surprising to some, considering Mr. Romney's Mormon faith and his leadership and financial turnaround of the 2002 Winter Olympics held in Salt Lake City. The Tribune...

The Salt Lake Tribune is receiving national media attention for its endorsement of the reelection of President Barack Obama. News organizations including CNN, the Washington Post and POLITICO all seem shocked that the state's leading newspaper is endorsing the incumbent, not the "favorite son."

SALT LAKE CITY — Capitalizing on her speech at the Republican National Convention and Utah campaign events featuring GOP stars, Mia Love raised more than twice as much money in the past quarter as Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson. ... Two Democratic organizations — House Majority PAC and Center Forward PAC — released a poll Monday showing Matheson with a 48 percent to 41 percent lead among likely 4th District voters. Love's poll by Public Opinion Strategies early last month had her up 51-36. Both Matheson and Love have discounted each other's numbers. A Deseret News/KSL survey in late September gave...

Mia Love Surges Ahead of Jim Matheson in Recent Poll Ramped up attack ads from Matheson signal desperation Saratoga Springs – A recent poll conducted by Public Opinion Strategies indicates Mia Love has surged to a commanding 51-36% lead over Matheson. Mia’s message of reforming Washington is gaining widespread support from Utah voters, while Jim Matheson's support for Obama's policies have diminished his support for re-election. With Mia Love surging among voters, Jim Matheson and his allies have resorted to false and personal attacks. Matheson and his Washington allies have begun a deeply negative campaign, attacking Mia Love, her family...

TAMPA, Fla.— African-American support for the Republican Party has fallen so far that a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll showed Mitt Romney capturing 0.0% of the black vote. Enter Mia Love, the 36-year-old daughter of Haitian immigrants and a Republican congressional candidate in Utah. Should she win, she would be the first-ever black Republican woman to win a seat in Congress.

I have to admit, the Huntsman candidacy for President never made much sense to me. When it began I thought: wait, this guy served in the Obama Administration and now wants to run against him? And I didn't really get any further than that. Maybe, though, it was simply Himalayan-sized political ambition. According to very credible sources, Huntsman has accepted a speaking slot at the Democrat convention in Charlotte next month. So, first the guy stabs the GOP in the back to work for Obama. Then, he stabs Obama in the back to run against him. And now Huntsman's political...

Rare is the Tea Party-tested Republican senator who hangs an image of the Kennedys' Hyannisport home over his desk and shows off the painter's personal inscription. "Orrin," reads the note, scribbled below a cobalt-blue sea. "We'll leave the light on at the compound for you anytime. Ted Kennedy, '91." The beacon of bipartisanship that defined their odd-couple relationship still guides Utah's Orrin Hatch. He didn't advertise it as he wooed and won over the tea partiers who, two years ago, toppled fellow conservative Robert Bennett from his Senate perch. But now, with his state's Senate GOP nomination in hand and...

With 43% of precincts reporting, veteran U.S. Senator Orrin G. Hatch is the projected winner over challenger Dan Liljenquist in a primary election held in tandem with the final presidential primary in the nation.The 2-1 margin of victory was a surprise to some observers considering that Hatch's fellow former senator Bob Bennett was defeated at the convention even before the state primary vote in 2010.

Sarah Palin has just announced that she is endorsing Sen. Orrin Hatch in the Utah Senate primary. Palin revealed this on Greta Van Susteren’s show. She emphasized Hatch’s record and position on balancing the budget........"

Sooner or later, a black Republican woman was bound to run for Congress. It’s just that nobody expected her to hail from Utah. Mia Love won the GOP nomination for the 4th Congressional District race Saturday at the Utah Republican Convention, scoring a major upset after wowing the crowd with a roof-raising speech at the South Towne Expo Center in Sandy. The daughter of Haitian immigrants, Mrs. Love took 70.4 percent of the delegate vote, well in excess of the 60 percent required to avoid a primary runoff under Utah’s unique rules. She defeated former state legislator Carl Wimmer, who...

If elected in November, Love would be the first black Republican woman in Congress and Utah's first black representative. She said she would join the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington, D.C., should she win. "Yes, yes. I would join the Congressional Black Caucus and try to take that thing apart from the inside out," she said.

If the possibility of Matheson competing with the likes of Hatch or Chaffetz for a Senate seat in Republican-dominated Utah seems far-fetched, think again: a recent Deseret News/KSL-TV poll by Dan Jones & Associates showed a Matheson-Hatch matchup tied at 47 percent, and in another hypothetical Chaffetz barely led Matheson, 46 percent to 45 percent.

Conservative PAC FreedomWorks, a prominent Tea Party group chaired by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, is targeting Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch in the 2012 Senate race. The group, arguing Hatch has insufficiently conservative economic views, is launching the so-called "Retire Orrin Hatch" campaign at Utah's Republican Convention on Saturday. "It's clear that Senator Hatch is trying to capitalize on the popularity of the Tea Party movement by reinventing himself as a fiscal conservative," said Russ Walker, Vice President of Political and Grassroots Campaigns for FreedomWorks PAC, in a statement. "But his recent rhetoric and actions in favor of limited...

The buzz in Utah is that Sen. Orrin Hatch may be vulnerable in 2012, especially if a Tea Party insurgent mounts a campaign to snag the nomination at the Utah Republican convention. Last year, Mike Lee and Tim Bridgewater knocked off Sen. Bob Bennett on the second ballot, sending the Beehive State into a political tizzy. Lee, of course, now holds the seat and is making an early name for himself as a fiscal hawk. (snip) Sal Russo, the group’s chief strategist, tells National Review Online that the Tea Party Express will not tangle with Hatch in 2012. “In 1976,...

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said over the weekend that he expects former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will run for president in 2012 and that he "would be my preference" for the GOP nomination. It's one of the first statements of 2012 support from a congressional Republican.

Washington » Former -- and potentially future -- presidential candidate Mitt Romney isn't weighing in on where the Republicans should hold their next national convention. Romney told The Salt Lake Tribune on Friday that he believes all three cities vying for the 2012 gathering -- Salt Lake City, Tampa and Phoenix -- are "terrific" cities but that he's not going to give a preference. "I remember what an extraordinary host Salt Lake was for the 2002 Winter Games," Romney said, "but one thing I will stay a mile away from is any discussion of which city should be the host...