SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The death Sunday of former U.S. Rep. Mia Love, the first Black Republican woman elected to the U.S. House, has brought renewed attention to an aggressive form of brain cancer that killed her at age 49.
The former lawmaker from Utah had undergone treatment for glioblastoma, a malignant brain tumor, and received immunotherapy as part of a clinical trial. Her daughter said earlier this month that she was no longer responding to treatment.
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FILE - Republican Mia Love celebrates with her father, Jean Maxime Bourdeau, after winning the race for Utah's 4th Congressional District during election night in Salt Lake City, Nov. 4, 2014. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)
FILE - Utah U.S. Congresswoman Mia Love speaks at the Utah Republican 2018 nominating convention, April 21, 2018, in West Valley City, Utah. (AP Photo/George Frey, File)
FILE - Republican congressional candidate Mia Love speaks during the Utah Republican Party nominating convention in Sandy, Utah, on April 26, 2014. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)
FILE - Mia Love, the Republican nominee in Utah's 4th congressional district, smiles after speaking during a rally in Lehi, Utah, Oct. 8, 2014. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)
FILE - Mia Love, Mayor of Saratoga Springs and candidate for Utah's 4th district congressional seat, gives a TV interview at the Republican election night party at the Hilton in Salt Lake City, Nov. 6, 2012. (Spenser Heaps/The Daily Herald via AP, File)
Love died at her home in Saratoga Springs, Utah, according to a statement shared by the family.
Love, born Ludmya Bourdeau, was a daughter of Haitian immigrants and a pioneering Republican congresswoman who represented Utah on Capitol Hill from 2015 to 2019.
She entered politics in 2003 after winning a seat on the city council in Saratoga Springs, 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Salt Lake City, and later became the city’s mayor. While in that role, Love spoke at the 2012 Republican National Convention and drew rousing cheers with her criticisms of then-President Barack Obama.
That year, she narrowly lost a bid for the House against the Democratic incumbent. She ran again two years later and defeated a first-time candidate by about 7,500 votes, becoming the first Black Republican woman elected to Congress.
Love was briefly considered a rising star in the GOP, but her power within the party petered out as President Donald Trump took hold. Love kept her distance from Trump and called him out in 2018 for vulgar comments he made about immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and some African nations. Later that year, she lost in the midterm elections as Democrats surged.
Love was diagnosed with glioblastoma in 2022. She said her doctors estimated she had only 10-15 months to live, but she surpassed that.
She described during a speaking engagement in Salt Lake City how she discovered the tumor. Love said she was on vacation with her family and developed a bad headache when the plane landed. When she went to the beach, the sun’s reflection on the water made her headache unbearable. Her husband brought her to the hospital, and a series of X-rays revealed a tumor in her brain.
Love rushed home to Utah and had surgery to remove about 95% of the tumor. Biopsy results revealed it was cancerous and likely to spread to surrounding brain tissue.
She entered a clinical trial at Duke University's Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center in Durham, North Carolina, that involved using her body’s immune system to attack the tumor. At first, the tumor shrank, but eventually it stopped responding to treatments.
“Glioblastoma is the most aggressive primary brain tumor that's known to mankind, and there is no cure for it,” said Dr. Yasmeen Rauf, a neuro-oncologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who treats the disease. “It keeps mutating. No matter what you do, it always comes back.”
A glioblastoma is a fast-growing glioma, a type of tumor that arises from glial cells, which protect nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.
While there is no known cure, aggressive treatments such as surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and other targeted therapies may slow the growth of the tumor. Even if a surgeon is able to remove all that can be seen, Rauf said there are typically still some tumor cells left in the brain that cannot be seen and will multiply quickly.
About 13,000 Americans are diagnosed with glioblastoma each year, accounting for almost half of all cancerous brain tumors, according to the Cleveland Clinic. More than 10,000 people in the U.S. will succumb to the disease every year, the National Brain Tumor Society reports.
Glioblastoma can occur at any age but is more commonly found in older adults. The average age at diagnosis is 64.
It's the same type of brain cancer that killed former President Joe Biden's son Beau Biden in 2015 and Sen. John McCain in 2018.
Researchers have not found a way to prevent glioblastoma, and the cause of most of these tumors is unknown. Glioblastoma occurs when glial cells in the brain or spinal cord mutate, altering their genetic makeup.
It does not run in families, and you won't pass it on to your children, Rauf explained.
People who have been exposed to significant amounts of radiation have an increased risk of developing glioblastoma.
People diagnosed with glioblastoma typically have about 15-18 months to live, with only a 10% chance of survival after five years, according to the MD Anderson Cancer Center.
With aggressive treatments, Love lived for about three years after receiving her diagnosis.
“My life has been extended by exceptional medical care, science and extraordinary professionals who have become dear friends,” Love wrote in a recent op-ed in the Deseret News. “My extra season of life has also been the result of the faith and prayers of countless friends, known and unknown."
FILE - Republican Mia Love celebrates with her father, Jean Maxime Bourdeau, after winning the race for Utah's 4th Congressional District during election night in Salt Lake City, Nov. 4, 2014. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)
FILE - Utah U.S. Congresswoman Mia Love speaks at the Utah Republican 2018 nominating convention, April 21, 2018, in West Valley City, Utah. (AP Photo/George Frey, File)
FILE - Republican congressional candidate Mia Love speaks during the Utah Republican Party nominating convention in Sandy, Utah, on April 26, 2014. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)
FILE - Mia Love, the Republican nominee in Utah's 4th congressional district, smiles after speaking during a rally in Lehi, Utah, Oct. 8, 2014. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)
FILE - Mia Love, Mayor of Saratoga Springs and candidate for Utah's 4th district congressional seat, gives a TV interview at the Republican election night party at the Hilton in Salt Lake City, Nov. 6, 2012. (Spenser Heaps/The Daily Herald via AP, File)
CINCINNATI (AP) — Cory Bowman was feeling inspired in January as he headed home after watching his half brother, JD Vance, be inaugurated as vice president.
The 36-year-old Bowman, who shares a father with Vance, was already active in the community, starting an evangelical church in Cincinnati’s West End and later opening a coffee shop. But he hadn’t thought politics was his calling.
Now, suddenly, he did. He decided to launch a campaign for mayor.
“There was nobody that pushed me into it, nobody that told me that this is a pathway I should go,” he said in an interview one recent morning. “But I just thought this would be a great way to help impact the city in another realm as well, because that’s always been the focus.”
Were he to pull an upset in this predominantly Democratic city, Bowman would be the latest family member of a president or vice president to serve in office. That includes the brother of Mike Pence, Trump’s first vice president, elected to Congress during their previous administration. In this case, however, Bowman says his run isn’t tied to national politics as much as a desire to improve the city.
“What I want to run as is I’m somebody that deeply loves Cincinnati," Bowman said. "I do have a background in economics, statistics and administration, and so I can kind of see certain things with the city that we can do better at.”
Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval, who is seeking reelection, is viewed as a rising star within the Democratic Party. Pureval, 42, is a lawyer and former special assistant U.S. attorney who previously served as Hamilton County Clerk of Courts and ran for Congress. He won the 2021 mayor's race in Ohio's third largest city with nearly 66% of the vote.
Bowman, a Republican, said he chose to run for mayor partly because it was the seat most immediately up for grabs and partly because it bothered him that Pureval was running unopposed. Another GOP candidate — procurement professional Brian Frank, 66 — jumped into the race around that same time for the same reason, setting up a three-way primary next month.
Cincinnati mayoral races are nonpartisan, so the top two vote-getters on May 6 will face each other in November.
“I think it’s fantastic that I’m not running unopposed,” Pureval said, saying he believes it's important for Cincinnati voters to have different visions from which to choose.
He was standing outside the ribbon-cutting on a new apartment complex downtown that had just opened inside the former Macy’s headquarters. It's the type of transformation Pureval cites among his accomplishments, also pointing to the city's growing population and double-digit drop in violent crime.
Bowman moved to Cincinnati around 2020 and did not vote in the last mayor's race. Pureval made an issue of his opponent's relatively short time as a city resident to suggest "he doesn’t necessarily have a track record or a deep commitment to the city, or relationships in that way.”
Bowman grew up on a farm outside Hamilton, about 25 miles (40.23 kilometers) north. He said his family “always considered Cincinnati our home, this area our home, this (Ohio River) valley.”
He said his family bounced back and forth a lot between Ohio and Florida, because their father, Donald Bowman, who died in 2023, was a custom home builder.
Cory Bowman attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where he earned a degree in economics and business administration, then returned to Florida to study the ministry at River University in Tampa. It was there that he met his wife, who's from Oklahoma, and "convinced her to love Cincinnati as much as me.”
They moved back and started The River Church Cincinnati, where they are co-pastors, then opened Kings Arms Coffee two years later. Vance, who was born in Middletown, Ohio, had moved back to the state a little earlier. He and his wife, Usha, bought their house in Cincinnati in 2018.
According to Vance’s best-selling memoir, “ Hillbilly Elegy,” Donald Bowman's other children were more or less strangers to him when he was a child. Vance's biological father had given him up for adoption and his mother even changed his name to erase any memory of the man from their lives.
But Cory Bowman says that Vance eventually remedied the situation. When he was 13, he asked to meet Donald Bowman and his younger brother and sister. Cory remembers fondly the future vice president coming to visit and the two of them playing basketball.
They’ve since developed a strong bond, he said, strengthened through going to college in Ohio at around the same time and getting married and becoming parents in tandem. Both have three children — two boys and a girl, ages 7, 5 and 3. Bowman's wife, Jordan, is expecting their fourth child in June.
Vance, 40, is not taking an active role in the campaign. The vice president's office declined to comment on Bowman's run, and Bowman has acknowledged that he does not have Vance's endorsement — at least not yet.
“As far as the relationship with JD, I tell people he’s my brother, he’s not a political counselor to me,” Bowman said. “He is not somebody that planted me here in this city.”
At campaign events and debates, Bowman opposed Cincinnati's sanctuary city status, promised to keep children safe and pledged to improve snow removal and fill potholes.
Cincinnati voter Desiree Terry, 34, said that she wasn't thinking about local government right now because, in her words, “the world is exploding.”
But if she votes in the mayoral race, she'll probably choose Pureval. Asked about supporting a relative of Vance's, Terry said, “It's a no.”
“I just think he’s helping with the chaos and I don’t want chaos locally,” she said. “It's already all around us, but it’s not hitting at home yet, and I feel like if he’s here it’s going to hit home, because it’s already everywhere else, so I’d rather not.”
An image of President Donald Trump is displayed as incumbent Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval, left, and Brian Frank participate in a candidate forum hosted by the Cincinnati NAACP, Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Cincinnati mayoral candidate Brian Frank participates in a candidate forum with incumbent Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval hosted by the Cincinnati NAACP, Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Incumbent Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval participates in candidate forum with Brian Frank hosted by the Cincinnati NAACP, Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Incumbent Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval participates in a candidate forum with Brian Frank hosted by the Cincinnati NAACP, Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Cincinnati mayoral candidate Brian Frank talks with a person in the audience after participating in a candidate forum with Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval, hosted by the Cincinnati NAACP, Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Cincinnati.(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Parishioners stand to worship with Pastor Cory Bowman at River Church Cincinnati's Easter worship service in the Hays Porter Elementary School gym, Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Cincinnati. Cory . (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
River Church Cincinnati pastor Cory Bowman, who is Vice President JD Vance's half brother and Cincinnati mayoral candidate, preaches during Easter worship service in the Hays Porter Elementary School gym Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Ronald Lunsford, holds his childern Parker Scroggins, right, and Maleachi Yancey, standing left, as River Church Cincinnati pastor Cory Bowman, who is Vice President JD Vance's half brother and Cincinnati mayoral candidate, preaches during River Church Cincinnati Easter worship service in the Hays Porter Elementary School gym Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
River Church Cincinnati pastor Cory Bowman, who is Vice President JD Vance's half brother and Cincinnati mayoral candidate, left, prays with Rebecca Perez during Easter worship service in the Hays Porter Elementary School gym Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
River Church Cincinnati pastor Cory Bowman, who is Vice President JD Vance's half brother and Cincinnati mayoral candidate, preaches during Easter worship service in the Hays Porter Elementary School gym Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Children wear easter bunny ears as River Church Cincinnati pastor Cory Bowman preaches during Easter worship service in the Hays Porter Elementary School gym Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Cincinnati. Bowman, Vice President JD Vance's half-brother, is running for Cincinnati Mayor. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Cory Bowman, half-brother of Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, top right, is pictured on stage with Vance, left, during the Republican National Convention, Wednesday, July 17, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Cory Bowman, Vice President JD Vance's half-brother, from right, speaks with Usha Vance and others on stage during the Republican National Convention, Wednesday, July 17, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
River Church Cincinnati founding pastors Cory and Jordan Bowman preach during Easter worship service in the Hays Porter Elementary School gym Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Cincinnati. Vice President JD Vance's half-brother Cory Bowman is running for Cincinnati Mayor. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
River Church Cincinnati pastor Cory Bowman, who is Vice President JD Vance's half brother and Cincinnati mayoral candidate, preaches during Easter worship service in the Hays Porter Elementary School gym Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
River Church Cincinnati pastor Cory Bowman, who is Vice President JD Vance's half brother and Cincinnati mayoral candidate, and RJ Symes, left, pray during Easter morning service in the Hays Porter Elementary School gym Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
River Church Cincinnati pastor Cory Bowman, who is Vice President JD Vance's half brother and Cincinnati mayoral candidate, preaches during Easter worship service in the Hays Porter Elementary School gym Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Cory Bowman, half-brother of Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, right, hugs Vance during the Republican National Convention, Wednesday, July 17, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
River Church Cincinnati pastor Cory Bowman, who is Vice President JD Vance's half brother and Cincinnati mayoral candidate, right, prays for healing over Ja'Sani Baltimore, 5, second from right, Kevon Winfield, 6, with Terra Williams during Easter worship service at the Hays Porter Elementary School gym Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
River Church Cincinnati pastor Cory Bowman, who is Vice President JD Vance's half brother and Cincinnati mayoral candidate, prays during Easter worship service in the Hays Porter Elementary School gym Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Cory Bowman, half-brother of Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, from right, is pictured on stage with Usha Vance and JD Vance during the Republican National Convention, Wednesday, July 17, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
River Church Cincinnati pastor Cory Bowman, who is Vice President JD Vance's half brother and Cincinnati mayoral candidate, preaches during Easter worship service in the Hays Porter Elementary School gym Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
