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.
In a speech that drew sustained applause at the GOP convention Tuesday night, Ms. Love recounted her parents’ journey to the U.S., saying they arrived with only $10 in their pockets.
“The America I grew up knowing was centered in self-reliance and filled with the possibilities of living the American dream,” said Ms. Love, the mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah.
She made apparent references to civil-rights icons Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “Our story has been told over 200 years, with small steps and giant leaps, from a woman on a bus to a man with a dream,” she said.
Ms. Love, a staunch conservative who converted to Mormonism, is challenging Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson, a six-term incumbent. Cook Political Report rates the race a tossup, and Ms. Love’s exposure on Tuesday night could give her a boost.
This is a copy of the full article provided by The Wall Street Journal
