Editor's note • This is the first in a series of occasional excerpts from "Mia Love: The Rise, Stumble and Resurgence of the Next GOP Star" by Tribune reporters Matt Canham, Robert Gehrke and Thomas Burr.
U.S. Rep.-elect Mia Love's optimism and her promises to reduce the size and power of the federal government will collide with what is arguably the most partisan, gridlocked Congress in modern times.
The economic recovery remains slow, the national debt is growing and entitlement costs remain a distant but substantial problem.
Just 142 bills passed before the fall recess, the lowest number in a modern Congress. Even the previous session, mired as it was in fights over the budget and Obamacare, saw more legislation cross the finish line.
Love has her plans: Repeal Obamacare, secure the border, simplify the tax code, build jobs. These all are ambitious goals for a freshman. They are also the same objectives the Republican-led House has unsuccessfully pushed over and over. (The House, for example, has voted more than 50 times to repeal or slash funding for Obamacare with zero effect on the president's landmark legislation.)
Traditionally, freshmen stay relatively quiet, learn the ropes and try to ingratiate themselves with their more senior colleagues. But Love's plan, as the representative for Utah's 4th Congressional District, is to be out front from the start.
"Instead of going back and forth, getting buried in the dysfunction in Washington, I'm going to do everything I can to go out and represent Utah to the public," she said. "I want to be out there talking about some of the things we are doing great, some of the things we could be doing better.
"I don't believe you can change public policy without garnering public support and public opinion," she said, "so I'm going to go and try to inspire people."
In many ways, it sounds like the strategy employed by President Barack Obama, which has failed to win over much of Washington. Even with the White House bully pulpit, Obama's agenda has been marginalized.
The key is to step back and focus — at least, that's the advice Dave Hansen, Love's campaign manager, has for her. "Don't get caught up in all of the crap of Washington," he said.
"Don't get caught up in wanting to please all of the groups that want to pull you in a million different directions, whether it be the national parties and the national committees saying, 'We need you to go here' and 'We need you to go there,' " he adds. "Learn to say no and say it strongly."
Love recognizes that she'll be unique in D.C. — a black Mormon and a woman from a red state not known for its minority populations, in a party crowded with aging white guys.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio learned this quickly when he came to Congress in 2011. The Cuban American was an attractive front guy for the GOP, a Latino who could build bridges to a community that had largely abandoned the party.
But Rubio made it clear in his first years in office that he wasn't there to be a show horse. He turned down national media interviews, making Florida journalists his priority. "I needed to step off the national stage for a while," Rubio wrote in his autobiography, "An American Son."
"If I had started my Senate career by focusing my attention on press opportunities, my staff would conclude that our office's highest priority was to keep me in the national spotlight," Rubio wrote.
Love said she recognizes that point but believes keeping a high profile is the best way to help her district and her party in the crowded House. "I am no good to you if I am one vote of 435," she says.
And even if Love has second thoughts, others may try to draw her out. In the modern media cycle, pundits are a dime-a-dozen and cable TV loves to turn to members of Congress to fill all those minutes in the 24-7 news churn. Fox News would love her. MSNBC would enjoy tangling with her. CNN is always looking for a new voice.
Inside the Capitol complex, she will be an instant go-to source for reporters hunting for a media-friendly member with a unique perspective. They may ask her more questions about race and her party's challenges with black voters than she's been comfortable with to date.
"She'll have the availability to go on any television show that she wants to," said Ron Bonjean, a Republican consultant who regularly dishes out quips and analysis for the media. "There's a real fine line of doing some national press and doing some local media so the voters know [elected officials] haven't just gone Hollywood."
That might be a struggle with party leaders eager to march out a fresh face to challenge the image of the GOP as a club for rich, white men.
"Know the American Dream lives" • To be fair, the Republican Party has always had black members, and several have been elected to Congress.
Joseph Rainey, a former slave from South Carolina, became the first black man to win a House election in 1870, during the Reconstruction era after the Civil War.
"I tell you that the Negro will never rest until he gets his rights," he said on the House floor.
Rainey was the first of 21 black Republican men elected to the House in the 1800s. Over time, as politics changed and Democrats were seen as the party of civil rights, the election of black Republicans came to a halt.
The first black GOP member to be elected to Congress in the 20th century was Oscar De Priest, who won in Illinois in 1929 and served for three terms.
It would be another 56 years until the next black Republican, Gary Franks of Connecticut, came to Washington.
In recent years, Love has become friends with former Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., who lost his seat in 2012. The only other black Republican currently in Congress, Rep. Tim Scott, R-S.C., was appointed to fill a vacancy in the Senate. That means Love will be the only black Republican in the House.
She plans to follow West's lead and join the Congressional Black Caucus, though it's not clear if she'll be the antagonist he turned out to be. In her first congressional campaign, she said she wanted to join the group of 43 House members to "take the thing apart from the inside out." She's taking a softer stance now.
"You know, I think that it's important for someone if they are going to do it, to be inside, to be able to relate and talk," Love said. "It is one thing to talk about the Congressional Black Caucus; it is another thing to be a part of it and to effect some change that way."
The caucus, in her mind, supports policies that keep poor people poor, or more specifically, that tend to increase dependency. She's thinking about specifics such as food stamps and subsidies for power bills and, more generally, a progressive view that government can help bring people up.
"What I want to do is remove those policies that make people poor," Love said. "I want to be able to look at people and … instead of saying, 'Here, I'm going to fund everything,' say, 'Look, I'm going to remove the obstacles out of the way because you work hard.'
"You can look at my parents and know the American Dream lives and you can look at me and know that could be you or your children; that's fundamentally the change that I want to have there. I want to make sure that people know you don't have to stay in the slums that they're in. That every single one of them is capable of being a leader, being great members of their communities, and only independent people can give back."
It sometimes takes a leader to galvanize people behind a cause, she said, pointing to the civil-rights movement.
"It just started off with Martin Luther King, too," she notes.
She'll be trying to sway one of the biggest contingents of black House members in history, which includes 19 other black women, all of them Democrats. She was also part of a record number of black candidates — 83 — who ran for the House this year.
Love is also the first representative who's Haitian American. And that raises the question: Will she try to help the economically depressed and violence-ridden country?
Helping Haiti • Maxime Bourdeau, who brought his family to the United States after fleeing Haiti's violent oppression and poverty 40 years ago, yearns for his daughter to become a champion for Haiti. Whether she can live up to his dream — or is willing to try — has yet to be seen. But no matter how partisan the politics in Washington get, they may be easier to navigate than the politics in Port-au-Prince.
Love's father, who has served as her lifelong moral compass and is at the heart of her American Dream political narrative, is a fan of President Michel "Sweet Micky" Martelly, who has shown a willingness to embrace supporters of deposed dictators Papa Doc and Baby Doc Duvalier.
Jean-Claude Duvalier, known as Baby Doc, fled Haiti for Paris in 1986 and crowds spontaneously danced in the streets. He unexpectedly returned to Haiti in 2011 and two days later faced corruption charges. But Duvalier was free to move around Port-au-Prince. He did, including visits to the presidential palace at the invitation of the Martelly administration, and lived lavishly.
It would seem logical to assume his re-emergence would anger Haitian expats Maxime and Marie Bourdeau.
To the contrary, Baby Doc had been in fairly regular contact with Maxime Bourdeau before the ex-dictator's recent death.
Bourdeau said they were introduced through a friend, but didn't elaborate. They had a series of phone conversations, the most recent of which took place in 2013. Love said she never heard about her father's relationship with Baby Doc, but assumes they connected through a Freemason with ties to Haiti.
Bourdeau said he told Duvalier he was a bad leader, but he also heard him out. Baby Doc won over Bourdeau, who called him a "great guy" and suggested if he ever had regained power, he would have been a compassionate president. Duvalier died Oct. 4, 2014, from a heart attack.
Haiti's biggest advocate in the U.S. House currently is Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif. In 2014, she repeatedly stressed the need for new elections and called for the Haitian government to respect peaceful protests.
Love said she doesn't have any specific plans to focus on Haiti other than — citing Ronald Reagan's famous pronouncement — ensuring the United States is a beacon of strength.
She does know what committee assignment she wants from House leaders, and she's aiming high. "I'm going to go gung-ho for Energy and Commerce," she said, "and I probably have the best chance of any freshman in getting that committee."
The committee, on which Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, has served, is one of the more powerful in the House and a coveted spot. It oversees issues such as taxes and health care.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, thinks Love will have a good shot at whatever she wants — as long as she's judicious about what she seeks.
He says Love is "going to go through a freshman year unlike anyone else. She's breaking barriers and ceilings that not many others can relate to."
"Under the microscope" • Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., said Love will still be learning colleagues' names in coming months, while by the time she takes the oath, they certainly will know hers.
"Whereas other freshmen, most other freshmen, will have some time to get their feet wet, she is really going to be under the microscope," Lummis said. "In a way, I feel for her, so much pressure is going to be placed on her."
Lummis came to Congress in 2009 and now sits on three committees where she's the only Republican woman. She imagines party folks and others will want to enlist Love in their causes.
"People are going to treat her like she's the spokeswoman for all black women conservatives, all Hispanic women conservatives, all women who are conservatives," Lummis said. "It's a terrible burden to bear. No one can speak for all those groups."
Love has said she doesn't want to model herself after any current or former member. She has a soft spot, though, for Jeannette Rankin, the daughter of a Montana rancher and schoolteacher who became the first woman in the United States elected to Congress.
"I am deeply conscious of the responsibility resting upon me," Rankin said in her 1916 victory speech. But it's another Rankin line that Love paraphrases when asked about her own history-making moment.
"I may be the first," Love said, "but I certainly hope I won't be the last."
Jeremy Harmon | The Salt Lake Tribune Mia Love delivers her victory speech after defeating opponent Doug Owens in the race for Utah's 4th Congressional District, Tuesday November 4, 2014.
Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune Mia Love gets a kiss from her husband Jason after defeating opponent Doug Owens in the race for Utah's 4th Congressional District, Tuesday November 4, 2014.
Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune Mia Love delivers her victory speech after defeating opponent Doug Owens in the race for Utah's 4th Congressional District, Tuesday November 4, 2014.
Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune Mia Love celebrates with supporters after defeating opponent Doug Owens in the race for Utah's 4th Congressional District, Tuesday November 4, 2014.
Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune Mia Love delivers her victory speech after defeating opponent Doug Owens in the race for Utah's 4th Congressional District, Tuesday November 4, 2014.
Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune Mia Love delivers her victory speech after defeating opponent Doug Owens in the race for Utah's 4th Congressional District, Tuesday November 4, 2014.
Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune Mia Love delivers her victory speech after defeating opponent Doug Owens in the race for Utah's 4th Congressional District, Tuesday November 4, 2014.
Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune Mia Love greets supporters after defeating opponent Doug Owens in the race for Utah's 4th Congressional District, Tuesday November 4, 2014.
Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune Mia Love delivers her victory speech after defeating opponent Doug Owens in the race for Utah's 4th Congressional District, Tuesday November 4, 2014.
Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune Mia Love delivers her victory speech after defeating opponent Doug Owens in the race for Utah's 4th Congressional District, Tuesday November 4, 2014.
Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune Mia Love delivers her victory speech after defeating opponent Doug Owens in the race for Utah's 4th Congressional District, Tuesday November 4, 2014.
Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune Mia Love delivers her victory speech after defeating opponent Doug Owens in the race for Utah's 4th Congressional District, Tuesday November 4, 2014.
Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune Mia Love celebrates with family and supporters after defeating opponent Doug Owens in the race for Utah's 4th Congressional District, Tuesday November 4, 2014.
Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune Mia Love celebrates with her husband Jason after defeating opponent Doug Owens in the race for Utah's 4th Congressional District, Tuesday November 4, 2014.
Jeremy Harmon | The Salt Lake Tribune Mia Love supporters celebrate as she takes a small lead over opponent Doug Owens in the race for Utah's 4th Congressional District, Tuesday November 4, 2014.
Book cover "Mia Love: The Rise, Stumble & Resurgence of the Next GOP star"