Rep. Mia Love (R-Utah) conceded to her Democratic opponent, Ben McAdams, on Monday, and she used her speech as an opportunity to rip into President Donald Trump’s treatment of her and the Republican Party’s relationship with minorities.
Love, who was the first black female Republican elected to Congress when she won in 2014, spent much of her speech addressing Trump’s claims that, “Mia Love gave me no love, and she lost,” though his remarks came before the election results were finalized.
“This gave me a clear vision of his world as it is,” Love said Monday in response to Trump’s jab at her for not inviting him to campaign for her in Utah. “No real relationships, just convenient transactions. That is an insufficient way to implement sincere service and policy.”
Trump’s comments about her and her overall experience during the election “shine a spotlight on the problem Washington politicians have with minorities and black Americans,” she continued. “It’s transactional. It’s not personal.”
She commended the Democrats for bringing record numbers of minorities into office during the midterm elections and admitted that “Republicans lost in that regard.”
She has sparred with Trump over the release of Utah resident Josh Holt, who had been held by the Venezuelan government until Love helped secure his release in May. She said Monday that she “nagged the president every day” to help her get him home.
Earlier this year, Love, a Haitian-American, strongly condemned Trump’s comments characterizing immigrants from Haiti and other nations as coming from “shithole countries.”
“The president’s comments are unkind, divisive, elitist, and fly in the face of our nation’s values,” she said in a statement.
Love’s concession brings the Democrats a net gain of 39 seats in the House this election cycle.