Even her name is media friendly. Mia Love instantly became the darling of the Republican Party on Wednesday, after being elected as its first black female member of Congress -- and she is a Mormon to boot.

 

She has also rapidly drawn¹ comparisons with Barack Obama, not least since she wowed her party's 2012 national convention with a tale of rags-to-political-riches, much like the young Senator Obama did in 2004.

 

"Many of the naysayers out there said that Utah would never elect a black Republican LDS woman to Congress," she said at her victory rally, referring to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormons.

 

"Not only did we do it, we were the first to do it," said the 38-year-old, who was previously² mayor of Saratoga Springs, a city 35 miles (56 kilometers) south of Salt Lake City.

 

Born Ludmya Bourdeau in Brooklyn to Haitian-American parents, Love catapulted herself into Washington's political spotlight³ by winning the Mormon-dominated western US state's Fourth Congressional District.

 

Love's parents came from Haiti in the mid-1970s, and she recalls in interviews how her father at times took second jobs cleaning toilets to pay for school for their three children.

 

She graduated from the University of Hartford, Connecticut with a degree in Fine Arts. A Catholic by upbringing, she found the Mormon faith before finding her white Mormon husband Jason Love.

 

Love is a minority in both her state and church: barely one percent of Utahans are black or African American, while only an estimated three percent of Mormons are. Mormons make up about 60 percent of Utah's population.

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