Facing a Tough Reelection, Mia Love to Skip Republican National Convention
“The presidential race isn’t the only contest on the ballot”
Between the dust-up over Mia B. Love (R-UT) using taxpayer money ($1,160) to attend the White House Correspondence Dinner and her somewhat high unfavorables, Love is facing a tough reelection bid this November and trails her Democrat opponent Doug Owens 51-45.
Recognizing that she has work to do in order to keep her seat, Love has decided to skip the Republican National Convention.
The Salt Lake Tribune reports:
Rep. Mia Love has decided to skip the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, giving up her delegate slot to focus on her re-election bid and to go on a congressional trip to Israel.
She saw no benefit in attending the gathering where Donald Trump is expected to claim the party’s presidential nomination.
“I don’t see any upsides to it,” Love said Friday. “I don’t see how this benefits the state.”
She’s the only member of Utah’s 40-person delegation to back out of the convention, though others are considering it, largely over opposition to Trump.
Love herself does not cite Trump as a primary reason for skipping the convention, but considering that he lost the Utah caucus to Ted Cruz (69% to Trump’s 14%), Trump’s relative lack of popularity in Utah may also be a contributing factor in her decision.
The Salt Lake Tribune continues:
Love won’t say whether she’ll vote for Trump in November, though she vehemently rules out voting for Democratic presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton. Love said she’s not sure what Trump really believes or wants to do once in office, and she has taken note that he remains deeply unpopular in Utah.
“Being thoughtful and taking my time and not blindly following is representing my district well,” she said.
The first-term congresswoman also brushed aside talk that Trump may consider her for his vice presidential nominee, rumors given fresh life Friday by former Trump aide Michael Caputo during an interview with Fox News Radio.
Love told The Salt Lake Tribune that she has never met or spoken to Trump and that she has no knowledge of any relationship between her campaign and his.
Asked if she would consider being Trump’s vice president, she said: “I’m endeared and close to the people I represent, and I’m not going to abandon them. I’ve just gotten started, and there’s a lot of work to do.”
Earlier in the presidential contest, Love backed Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and she noted that she ran to be a national delegate when Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, was still in the race. Now that it is just Trump, Love has decided that her time would best be spent in places other than Cleveland.
Trump, however, does appear to be a factor in down ballot races this year in states in which he is not particularly well-liked. With the Democrats already confident that they can win back the Senate this year (and they may), they are also quite gleeful about the possibility of winning the House, as well.
This is a very real concern, as I’ve said, no matter who wins the White House in November. The outcome of a Hillary win and a Democrat Congress will make Obama’s first two years in office look positively right-wing extremist, and the outcome of a Trump win and a Democrat Congress will jeopardize everything from his Supreme Court nominations to the funding of his wall and the majority of his other campaign priorities.
The specter of losing the House in November is influencing the Utah Republicans who are working overtime to help Love win.
Rep. Mia Love was a rising star two years ago when she became the first black Republican woman ever elected to Congress — as well as a symbol of the more diverse, inclusive party that GOP leaders said they needed to build.
But now, the prospect of Donald Trump leading the Republican ticket has Utah Democrats hopeful they can reclaim Love’s conservative House seat in November. And the local GOP is already working on a secret plan to keep its voters motivated even if Trump, whom GOP activists decisively rejected at Tuesday’s caucuses, is the presidential nominee in November.
“We’re calling it Plan T,” said James Evans, the GOP state party chairman. The party is preparing for a statewide get-out-the-vote effort to remind Republicans who don’t want to back Trump that the presidential race isn’t the only contest on the ballot.
. . . . Love is an asset worth protecting for the Republican Party, both in Utah and nationally. The GOP tapped her for a coveted speaking slot at its 2012 convention, during her first run for Congress, and her story — Love’s parents emigrated from Haiti the year before she was born, 40 years before she was elected to the House — stands out in a House Republican conference that is more than 90 percent white.
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Rising stars need to understand why they were elected and what not to do when in DC. The public has a short fuse for business as usual from the DC crowd, so newbies refrain from joining in with what the public wants out.
Her story may have emotional appeal. However, her narrative as a conservative leaves much to be desired.
Love is not my idea of a pure conservative. But she is a fine representative of her district, which is made up of Utahans. Even Republicans in Utah tend to be pretty moderate.
There are, of course, exceptions, such as Sen. Mike Lee. But he’s not elected solely by Love’s district, which tends purple.
She really screwed up, jumping into the bosom of boehner and the GOPe, forgetting who elected her.
She’s displayed poor judgment and a lack of courage in the face of…Mittens Romney.
Using taxpayer money ($1,160) to attend the White House Correspondence Dinner? I’ll bet she paid it back.
But that’s reason enough for voters to reject her. And something for every newspaper editorial to harp upon every day between now and November. It’s not like she doing anything harmless, like sending classified documents unlawfully over a non-secure network. Or like she took tens of thousands of dollars worth of property belonging to the government for her personal use. But look at spin put on that showing it really wasn’t all that bad, and it was all just an innocent mistake anyhow: http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2015/oct/01/viral-image/viral-image-wrongly-accuses-clinton-stealing/
She did pay it back, but it was all very ugly, with her first claiming that the trip was for a meeting (later found to be untrue). It’s definitely not on the level of Hillary’s half a century of lawlessness.
I looked it up recently & Loves C.R. (Mark Levin) rating is 54%. Newbies Kristi Noem (S.D.), Cory Gardner (Co.), & Mike Rounds (S.D.), are even worse at well under 50%. Joni Ernst is in the low 60’s % last time I checked.
By contrast most Dems liberal ratings are in the 90+%. Very few if any fall much below 85%.
So what’s the answer? Elect more republicans!!
You’re not taking into account that it took the Democrats over fifty years to achieve that; they’ve been working on booting centrist Dems since at least the ’60’s.
Did you really imagine that two or three midterms would achieve the same result in the GOP that took Dems half a century?
Of course the solution is to elect more Republicans and to keep electing them until there are enough to make a difference in terms of being a big enough bloc in Congress to affect change and to put the GOPe in the same position that Blue Dogs are in on the left (gone or silent and go along to get along). What would you propose instead?
I’m asking seriously because so far all I’ve heard is Trump will fix everything and screw Congress, Republicans, and everyone . . . except Trump. What does that mean in real terms? How do you imagine he will achieve your dreams if he’s not got a GOP majority? Even a flawed GOP majority is better than a progressive one, no? Or do you think Trump will be anointed king or something? I’m truly trying to understand what your vision is since you’ve repeatedly dismissed the idea of trying to elect more conservatives to Congress. If Trump is elected and has a Democrat Senate, how do you imagine his Supreme Court nominees get confirmed? Seriously. I’m asking.
If you don’t like my position in terms of electing more conservatives to Congress, what is your solution?
No doubt the leadership (?) coming from Congress is sorely lacking. In addition, we’re in need of good, quality leadership in nearly every segment of our society. There’s a song entitled “Let There Be Peace on Earth” whose second line is “Let it begin with me.”
II we hold the view that America needs to be made great again, we need to ask ourselves, each and every one, in what way or ways we’ve dropped the ball, so to speak. Serious dialogue, I believe, is need on this topic.
Agreed.
Update :
Joni Ernst is C.R. rated at 60%. I just looked it up. When I went to school that was an F. 10 republican senators rate 75% or above. Out of 54 republican senators. Senators are elected for 6 years.
I referenced 5 republicans. 2 of which are in the house. Both newbies. We’ve got Loves story. Noem is the only So. Dak. representative. She’s ranch stock so her pitch was similar to Ernst’s. So. Dak. is a Conservative state tho it can elect democrats. Both Noem & Ernst lied.
Both Gardner & Rounds also come from Rural stock. Neither is up for reelection until 2020. Both’s C.R. rating has until recently been under 40%. Gardner is considered a leadership comer.
Gardner, Tipton, Lamborn, & probably Coffman make appearance’s & hold mutual news conferences together with democrat senator Michael Bennet. All laud their work together. Bennet is running a campaign ad exploiting his work with republicans. He’s up for reelection this year. His C.R. rating is .08%.
Colorado has had 2 notable govt involved scandals. One involves the deliberate breech of the Gold King mine by the E.P.A.last August. A Richard Nixon legacy. The other the continuing delays & triple cost overruns of the Aurora V.A. hospital & center. Gardner, Coffman, Tipton, Lamborn & Bennet make sure to all appear dutifully concerned in their numerous mutual appearance’s & press conferences together. The press of course eats it up.
There’s much more involving any other number of contentious issues I’ll not get into. I know all this because this is what I do. This is the purpose of the system & close to 500 contacts I’ve been building over the last over 4 years.
Feel free to blow all this off as irrelevant. Most Conservatives do.
By the way, I’m not nor have I ever called myself a Conservative.
You’re not a conservative but you track the Conservative Review’s ratings of Republican Congressmen and women? Conservative Review ratings that track votes as either “conservative” or “liberal.” What are you looking for if not conservative votes and values? I’m a bit puzzled by this.
I’d also be interested in your response to what I actually wrote above.
Fuzzy :
I appreciate you hanging in there.
My agenda isn’t that much different than yours probably. It doesn’t track with Conservative in that I’m more involved in working with people outside the choir. In doing that I’ve had little to no success in getting Conservatives involved in these efforts. They pretty much agree these efforts need to be made ; I go out & do the preliminary spadework ; when I ask for Conservative volunteers I get excuses.
I’ve been involved with eastside Pueblo for 6 years now. This Christmas will be the 6th year for an annual Toy drive I’ve helped set up. I did this thinking it would be a good opportunity for Conservatives to connect with Pueblos underclass. Though I’ve asked all my Conservative contacts to participate none will. As a result I did an end around and now have 4 churches, the library, IBEW local 667 & the Southern Colorado Labor Council involved. Each year something like 400 eastside children get a toy from Santa.
Conservatives took a walk.
Some of us tried to get Conservatives involved in a constitutional outreach with local schools. It started out looking promising. It fell apart when long term funding was found involving homosexual Tim Gill. Conservatives couldn’t bail out fast enough.
Birdhouses, community gardens, volunteer neighborhood cleanups & houses painted for the elderly, mentoring, boy & girl scouts, P.Y.P. & Waittraining. The last was a part of W. Bushes abstinence outreach. Defunded in 2009, folded in 2010. No Conservatives or republicans could bother to care.
I tried for a year to no effect.
There’s more, I’ve never given up on Conservatives, you’ve not just given up, you’ve never made the effort.
I’ve long term set it up so I’ll survive. My attitude, preparation, & thinking have made that possible. Given present trends conservatives are screwed. You don’t have the necessary mindset, you accept & excuse a party that’s evolved as I’ve just set it out. That party & mindset are hopeless as a vehicle for opposition.
You can’t coalesce arond a leader chosen by your own voters through a process your leadership set up.
Now you explain to me how you hope to prevail given the reality conservatism in league with republicanism has created.
I notice you never use the word “Republican?” Do you mean “conservative” or do you actually mean Republican, which is different? Being Republican does not make you a conservative, as many on here will gladly attest to.
I did the 6 month report card on Cory Gardner for our TEA Party group. On every issue of concern, he voted with Democrat Michael Bennet who is up for re-election this year.
Which is interesting in that there were originally 6 good people running to be the candidate to oppose Democrat Mark Udall in 2014. Cory Gardner was NOT one of them. The State Republican Party called them all in. Told them that if they did not drop out, they would never be a Republican candidate again for anything. All dropped out, and the party announced that Cory Gardner was the unopposed candidate running in the primary.
Anyone pushed by the GOPe is NOT going to fight Democrats. And not surprisingly, Bennet right now is running commercials about how he works so well and constantly with Republican Cory Gardner for the benefit of all Coloradans. And neither Gardner, nor the Republican Party can be bothered to gainsay him.
Cory Gardner is so Demoratic it makes me sick. Just like Susan Collins he is not in the least bit conservative or Republican for that matter. They are opportunists with no core values except, “Can’t we all get along”. In fact, if it were any other election I would fight for a third party. The Republican party is so close to the Demorats that it is not even a contest any longer. I truly believe that a third party led by a nationalist could win on the patriot agenda and America first. Where did this help everyone else but ourselves come from? How about all of the people from the coal and steel industry? What is happening in the textile industry? Our manufacturing jobs are turning into service jobs. If a world war were to break out we have no industry base any longer to fight back. WTF is happening to our country?????
Any convention with Trump could be a wild card, so why take the risk. I would have liked to hear her speak though. Even if she’s not perfect on all the issues there’s no question that she’s an ally and asset to conservatives. When congress is veto-proof conservative then I’ll start to worry about perfection.
Once again, the “magical wand ” of Washington,D. C. changes a person, who spouted tea party ideas to get elected, into the typical politician that betrays the peoples trust.
Not all of them – just the wannabe hacks who the GOPe lines up for election.
In Mia’s case, she showed an ultimate lack of judgment, and a pathetic lack of guts in the face of the crying beoehners.
ran as a conservative, then went full bore RINO as soon as she got to DC…
the GOPe must be *so* proud.
Mia, Mia ,Mia… WHY?
Using taxpayer money ($1,160) to attend the White House Correspondence Dinner! And told fibs about what the money was used for.
This is not a Trump issue it’s a Mia issue…………..
There is a group of DC insiders who haven’t learned that there is a new world of news and its called the internet. These people seem to think that if it isn’t in the paper or on TV then it didn’t happen. Love fell into that mindset and it may cost her her seat. Why can’t the people who run on our values stay true? Do Demorats ever compromise? Hell no! But Republicans do daily.
Utah presidential poll is looking sad:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/ut/utah_trump_vs_clinton-5834.html
I guess at this point it’s “leaning” GOP. Presumably, a number of Republicans dropped out of the electoral process, contributing to Love’s poor performance. It’s an old poll, though.
I’m sending this all on as a package to my brother Terry who with his wife is long time pro life. I’ll include others from my pro life contacts. Terry along with many others in the pro life movement has spent time in a number of jails. He & Bev his wife have been extensively audited by the IRS over a dozen times over a quarter century.
You’re not the first group of Conservatives I’ve tried to warn over these past 7 years. I’ve laid out some of these efforts in this thread. For over 40 years now I’ve been resisting & warning about the encroaching Fascism. Conservatives should be listening & heeding these cries from me & a growing group of others that increasingly see it.
You won’t, & you’ll be angry at the persistence of people like me. You accuse me of looking for all the answers in a man like Trump. That’s not the case as I explained just a day or so ago to you Fuzzy on another thread. I distrust men on White Horse’s. But for right now Trump is the option that’s available. Yet you “principled Conservatives” insist on fighting him tooth & nail to demonstrate your Conservative Purity. I don’t know what to do with that anymore. I don’t think you’ll change. I think your embedded attitude could well cost the election. Yet you willingly voted for both McCain then Romney. Both proven traitors & losers.
So congratulations, you may well win. You may well stop Donald Trump. Then you can blame him & those of us that support him for what results from a Fascist Hillary Clinton administration. Aided & abetted by a republican party you insist must be supported.
The state of California aided & abetted by H.H.S. is making it mandatory for religious institutions to carry health insurance for their employees that will cover abortions including late term. As I said earlier in this post you Conservatives are screwed. 4 more years of Hillary aided & funded by republicans like Cory Gardner & the rest mentioned earlier should do the trick along with a million & more unleashed immigrants. Muslim & otherwise. You think republicans will hold the line? The republicans have held the majority since 2014, that tenure is rife with lines crossed.
I wonder, Secondwind, if your decades-long immersion in your worldview has somehow influenced your ability to think clearly? Is that possible? I ask because your responses are never to anything I actually say; you simply respond to some straw man grouping you label “conservatives” but that, from your own description, has nothing at all to do with conservatism.
You also are incredibly misguided if you think that any conservative is opposed to Trump in order to “demonstrate conservative purity”; not only does that make no sense, but I spent a long time explaining to you where you and other Trump fans go wrong in terms of understanding the myriad people and political ideologies who oppose Trump. I know no one and am aware of no one who is #NeverTrump to prove they’re conservative. Frankly, we don’t have to prove we are conservatives of any ilk to anyone, including ourselves, because we are perfectly secure in our values and principles.
You have Hillary wrong, too. She’s a greedy, grasping power-hungry Alinskiite, a commie to her core. Trump, on the other hand, has said a great many things that suggest to me that he leans more toward fascism than freedom. Then again, you may be a bit confused about fascism as well as about conservatism and its many variations (I’m a Constitutional conservative, not a social conservative, not a fiscal conservative–though of course there are elements of both in Constitutional conservatism. I’m not a fair weather conservative, I’m not a “reformacon” / “compassionate conservative,” and I’m definitely not a “progressive conservative”–as no such thing exists, that would be a stretch anyway, though it’s fun to watch progressive Republicans contort themselves into that particular oxymoronic model). You seem to think that conservatives are one thing, all lumped together as you lump all #NeverTrump people together. That’s just not reasonable.
It is an easy way to identify and discuss one large group without repeating endless qualifiers, but you don’t seem to be doing that. You seem to have your very own definition of conservative, and while, that’s fine, we are obviously going to continue talking at cross-purposes and getting nowhere. Let’s just call it a day and move on with our week. 🙂
I agree. You’re right. I’m wrong. You win.
As I explained in my presentation you have no idea how many times Conservatives have told me that. In their endless meeting’s & choir practices.
How can I argue with your success rate that includes Mia Love, Cory Gardner, Joni Ernst, Kristy Noem, Mike Rounds & lets throw in John Thune as well. All good & proven principled consevatives. Who in total clock out at best at a 50% C.R. Rating.
While democrats in total clock out at around a 90% liberal rating.
Elect more republicans!!!
You keep repeating this same faulty argument. Why? Do you honestly not understand that the Democrats have taken fifty years, give or take, to achieve that “progressive purity”? You also seem to think that replacing the GOP majority with a Democrat majority (apparently by means of stomping your foot and refusing to support any Republican) is a good plan. That particular “plan” strikes me as counter-productive . . . unless your goal is a Democrat House and a Democrat Senate. In that case, you’re right on track to achieve that goal.
You can snark and snipe all day long, but we have a two-party system (effectively). If we don’t elect more Republicans, we either elect more Democrats or don’t participate in the election process at all and sit back . . . while others elect more Democrats. Or do you see some third way? From what you’ve said, your forty years of hard work doing whatever it is you do has resulted in . . . well, what? A list of empty talking points you trot out over and over, an unearned sense of superiority, and an award for being the best passive supporter of Democrats evah?
Yay!?
Fuzzy :
Thank you for the response. I do appreciate continued dialog as opposed to endless running in circles, abusive responses, & overall pissing contests. You are a lady even though I
suspect we’ve reached an intractable impasse.
I don’t have a good answer. I’ll be 70 years old in early September. I’ve lived through, experienced, & resisted what is happening to our country since Kennedys assassination. I grew up under both Trumann then Eisenhower. Both were our last “normal” presidents. I grew up & came of age during the twilight of the American experiment. No one realized it at the time. At that time anything was possible. In 1969 America went to the moon. We’ve not been back.
Over those intervening decades America has morphed into what it now is. Entirely different people. Bastardised morality. Diffused loyalties. Today’s Americans don’t know what that America was. A half century of lies. Damn few people today know how to think independently anymore. People today for the most part want to do the right thing but they now think in groupthink. They think with the group mind of the group they’re a part of.
I’ve always been an outlier. I’ve never belonged. I can’t communicate with a group mindset. Only one on one.
I have no easy or even difficult answers. None that anyone will follow at any rate. My answers are too difficult. They involve thought in a different way. America overall can no longer do that. My sense is an America of an entirely different sort is evolving. To come to pass that America will reject the old status quo. Reject the group think that is characteristic of our present situation.
That’s what my goal has been since I came out a 5th amendment tax striker over 40 years ago. I will no longer enable or be complicit in the criminal republican party. I can’t do much of anything.with the democrat party.
The republican party either must become a true opposition party or it must be destroyed. Only then is redemption for America possible. I no longer think the republican route is feasible. It’s being attempted now through Trump. I admit I’m dubious that is the answer. But for now it’s the only short term option on the table.
Long term I’m done with the as is republican party. I’m back in the mattress’s. I suspect that’s where I’ll die.
Aw, you are a good guy, Secondwind, and while we are indeed at an impasse, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed getting to know you better. And happy early birthday! 🙂
I also want to say that I share your sense that America–the America we knew and loved–is likely gone. I’m not sure if you have time, but I wrote a post about this very thing that you may find interesting.
I agree that the Republican party must become a true opposition party, but I think we differ on how we make that happen. You seem to wash your hands of it and hope they get the message while putting all your eggs in the basket of a man who is notably unreliable and untrustworthy, whose ability to put his finger to the wind and adjust his “principles” accordingly is legendary. I cannot do that. Instead, I advocate sending opposition Republicans to Congress, one by one, every two years. The ones who don’t hold, have to go in the next cycle, and on until we, the people, install an opposition party in Congress. It just takes patience and the ability to pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off and push forward when we lose or are disappointed by a sell-out. But hey, we’re Americans, we can handle that in our sleep. 🙂
Trump. I really don’t get this vesting of the salvation of America in one person, let alone in that particular one person. We, the people, are our country’s salvation, not some progressive carnival barker who has already admitted that everything he’s said on the campaign trail is not only “negotiable” (he’s been saying that for months) but is now off the table completely.
History tells us in loud, lucid detail that any nation that seeks salvation by a single man is doomed to almost inconceivable horrors.
Sorry i gave you a down vote, it was just under the reply sign and clicked it and could not unclick it. My point though is that we do not need any more democrats or any more establishment republicans. We need some representatives that do not think they are so much wiser than the ordinary voter and truly represent their concerns rather than the “party” or the big donors.
No worries, dunce, the up and down vote thingy is now more a function of “I like this person because s/he supports/doesn’t support Trump” or “I do not like this person because s/he supports/doesn’t support Trump.” No one takes it seriously (well, I guess some here do, but not I).
I agree that we need conservative (or non-GOPe) members of Congress and have been advocating that for years. Yes, we’ll get some duds or we’ll get those who ride TEA Party types to D. C. and then show themselves to be useless lapdogs to the GOPe and/or Democrats. That’s when we primary them and replace them with better choices. It’s a process, and all the foot-stomping and flailing on the floor in the world won’t change that. There is no immediate cure for what ails us because what ails us didn’t spontaneously appear over night.
What many Trump fans seem to be advocating is just shrugging about Congressional races and doing a stompy footed dance while cursing everyone in sight. The result of this paradoxically enraged apathy and spoiled brat mentality is . . . more Democrats in Congress. It’s really not rocket science. A Trump presidency with a Democrat Congress is a ridiculous goal, but that’s what they want (sure they won’t actively vote for Democrats, but they’ll skip down ballot support for the GOP and thereby play right into the Dems’ hands). But then, these are the same people who brought us eight years of Obama, so it’s not surprising that they’re doing the same thing now that they did in ’08 and ’12.
It appears that they think their abstaining from voting for or supporting Republicans is some sort of “message” that the GOP will heed . . . um, you know, one day. The facts don’t bear this out, of course. A few million took their toys and stomped off home in both ’08 and ’12, their “message” clearly falling on deaf ears as the GOP responded by moving still further left, not anxiously correcting to the right as was (apparently) hoped.
Rather than being able to see this and to adjust accordingly, they sniffle and spit and double-down on a failed strategy. Sort of like the way the British repeatedly insisted on forming a perfect line in their bright red uniforms and marching forward . . . to certain death. It took a while for the Brits to catch on, too, and they lost the Revolutionary War in the process. Failure to adapt in the face of failure leads to more failure. Or to put it another way, it’s insane to keep doing the same thing and expect different results.
The republican party made her with their support and she owes them. They do not like Trump because he owes them nothing and is uncontrollable. The rules they made have hoisted them on their own petard.