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Seven new members of Congress to watch

With the 2014 midterm elections all but wrapped up, the Monitor looks at which new members of Congress could make the most waves.

3. Mia Love

Ravell Call/Deseret News/AP
Mia Love, candidate for United States Congress, waves to motorists in Sandy, Utah, Monday. She won her election Tuesday.

With her victory in the race for the seat in Utah's Fourth Congressional District, Mia Love became the first-ever black female Republican in Congress. Yet in overcoming Democrat Doug Owens Tuesday after her narrow loss in the race for the same seat in 2012, Ms. Love always focused more on her platform than the historical implications of her victory.

In a district that is 1.6 percent black, this approach makes sense, and Love was effective in making her race a minor feature of her campaign. She has taken the popular Republican position of advocating for smaller government – which her campaign described as currently "Goliath sized" – but she has also distanced herself from the far right tea party, which she said "isn't a party." 

Education reform could be a polarizing topic for her, however. During her 2012 campaign she suggested eliminating subsidized student loans and Pell Grants as a way to reduce federal spending. She didn't repeat that call this year but has promised to demolish the departments of Energy and Education.

She will also now join the Congressional Black Caucus and has promised to "try to take that thing apart from the inside out" and flip on its head the notion that African-Americans should always vote Democrat. On the campaign trail, she argued that she wants to help make it "so party lines go away."

"I seriously believe this president would like to divide our party, and part of the tactic is to divide America based on race, gender, income and social status," she told Newsweek.

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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