The only race she worries about is the one for mayor

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The only things that make Mia Love feel discriminated against in Saratoga Springs are hair products.

She can't find any.

As a black woman in Utah, there aren't many hair-care options, she says, so her mom sends her some from Connecticut, where she grew up.

Other than that, Love feels right at home in the community where she has lived for the past nine years.

To her neighbors, she's just Mia, though she hopes they'll soon call her Mayor Love.

And she is one step closer after Tuesday night's primary election. Love and Jeff D. Francom emerged from a crowded field of mayoral hopefuls in the race to succeed outgoing Mayor Timothy Parker, who did not seek re-election.

It's a political race in which Love says she doesn't believe gender or race will play any role.

"The people here don't care," she said. "They want someone who listens, protects their property values and protects their rights."

Love is currently in the middle of her second term on the Saratoga Springs City Council. She decided to run for mayor when she found out that Parker would not seek another term and that none of her fellow council members would be running for mayor.

"It was the right time for me to step up," Love said.

If elected, Love would become the first black woman to serve as mayor of a Utah municipality, said Jeanetta Williams, president of the NAACP branch in Salt Lake City.

But Love said she stopped seeing herself as just a black woman a long time ago.

"Color is not what makes a person," she said. "It's the places they grow up, the experiences they have, their community, their family, their friends. I'm not defined by my color. I'm defined as an American."

Love originally went into politics after the Supreme Court started discussing taking "under God" out of the Pledge of Allegiance six years ago. She taught her then-2-year-old daughter how to recite the pledge and ran for City Council that fall.

"I felt that I really needed to get involved," she said.

Love said she could not serve on the City Council or run for mayor without help and encouragement from her husband and children.

Often when she's running errands, she said her kids will yell, "Vote for Mia Love!"