Outgoing Rep. Mia Love (R-UT) took aim at her party’s leader during her Monday concession speech, slamming President Trump’s harsh transactional approach to politics and warning that the GOP’s failure to appeal to nonwhite voters would have major repercussions in the future.
Love, the only black female House Republican, lost a close race to Rep.-elect Ben McAdams (D-UT), said Trump’s view of politics and the world has “no real relationships, just convenient transactions.”
Love’s comments came after Trump mocked her in his post-election press conference.
“Mia Love gave me no love and she lost,” Trump smirked. “Too bad. Sorry about that, Mia.”
That earned a rebuke from the outgoing member.
“What did he have to gain by saying such a thing about a fellow Republican?” she said Monday during a speech in Salt Lake City. “This gave me a clear vision of his world as it is. No real relationships, just convenient transactions. That is an insufficient way to implement sincere service and policy.”
And she warned the party needed to do more to win over minority voters.
“We feel like politicians claim they know what’s best for us from a safe distance, yet they’re never willing to take us home,” she said. “Because Republicans never take minority communities into their home and citizens into their homes and into their hearts, they stay with Democrats and bureaucrats in Washington because they do take them home — or at least make them feel like they have a home.”
Love’s district is heavily Republican but Trump’s approval rating there, like in many areas with large Mormon populations, is abysmal. She lost partly because of his drag, partly because McAdams is a talented politician who was well-known as Salt Lake County mayor, and partly due to her own problems, including campaign finance violations.
