In his acclaimed biography of John F. Kennedy entitled “An Unfinished Life,” Robert Dallek writes that the sudden ending to the life of the 35th president “leaves us with some tantalizing ‘might have beens.'”

So it is with former Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, who died March 23 after a long bout with brain cancer. Although Love, 49, had been out of office since 2018, she was widely remembered as America’s first Black female Republican member of Congress and someone the eyes of prognosticators and pundits were very much focused on during her four years in the U.S. House.

And the “might have beens” were many following her death. Had Love not lost to centrist Democrat Ben McAdams in 2018 by a microscopic 694 votes (.257% of the total), she would have compiled more seniority and perhaps had an easier time in subsequent trips to the polls. A member of the House Financial Services Committee and of the Congressional Black Caucus who once said her faith and belief in humanity “helps me to work with my Congressional Black Caucus colleagues on important issues like criminal justice reform,” Love might easily have made it into a leadership position among her fellow Republican lawmakers.

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