Van Taylor
| Nicolas Van Campen Taylor | |
U.S. Representative-elect for Texas District 3
| |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office January 3, 2019 | |
| Preceded by | Sam Johnson |
|---|---|
Texas State Senator for
District 8 (Plano) | |
| In office January 13, 2015 – January 3, 2019 (pending) | |
| Preceded by | Ken Paxton |
| Succeeded by | Angela Paxton |
Texas State Representative
for District 66 | |
| In office April 20, 2018 – January 13, 2015 | |
| Preceded by | Brian McCall |
| Succeeded by | Matt Shaheen |
| Born | August 1, 1972 Dallas, Texas |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Anne Taylor (married 2002) |
| Residence | Plano, Texas |
| Occupation | Businessman
Major in United States Marine Corps Reserve and veteran of the Iraq War |
| Religion | Episcopalian |
Nicholas Van Campen Taylor, known as Van Taylor (born August 1, 1972), is an Iraq War veteran and Texas Republican businessman who is the U.S. Representative-elect for the Texas District 3 seat in the United States House of Representatives Since 2015, Taylor has been a state senator in the heavily Republican District 8. He now seeks to succeed fellow Republican Sam Johnson, who is retiring from the congressional seat. From 2011 to 2015, Taylor represented District 66 in the Texas House of Representatives.
Taylor was born in Dallas, Texas, to Nicholas Cavenhove and the former Catherine Blaffer. After graduating from St. Paul's School, a preparatory school in Concord, New Hampshire, he graduated from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with a degree in history. He then joined the USMC, completed infantry and intelligence training, and served as a reconnaissance platoon leader and an intelligence officer. After his four-year active duty tour ended, Taylor joined the Marine Corps Reserves. He returned to Harvard and earned a Master of Business Administration from the Harvard Business School; he then worked for McKinsey and Company and the Trammell Crow Company in Dallas until he volunteered for active duty service as a United States Marine Corps platoon leader in Iraq.
Taylor served with the Marine Corps' C Company, 4th Reconnaissance Battalion and fought with the 2nd Force Reconnaissance Company. As a captain, he led missions behind enemy lines for the 4500 Marine Task Force Tarawa, including the leadership of the task force's first platoon to enter Iraq before the start of the main invasion. During Operation Iraqi Freedom, Taylor's platoon encountered, and defeated, several Fedayeen ambushes, participated in the operation to rescue U.S. prisoner of war Private First Class Jessica Lynch and rescued thirty-one wounded men under fire during a counterattack by several thousand Iraqi soldiers. His military decorations include the Navy Commendation Medal with "V" for Valor, the Combat Action Ribbon, and the Presidential Unit Citation. Taylor is a major in the Marine Corps Reserves.
In 2006, Taylor unsuccessfully challenged the Democrat Chet Edwards, a Texas A&M University graduate, for Texas' 17th congressional district seat. Edwards was subsequently unseated in 2010 by the Republican Bill Flores.
Angela Paxton, wife and political advisor of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, is the Republican state senator-elect for District 8; she will succeed Taylor in January 2019. She defeated the Democrat Mark Phariss in the same election in which her husband won a second term as attorney general.