Van Taylor

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Nicolas Van Campen Taylor


U.S. Representative for Texas's 3rd congressional district
In office
January 3, 2019 – January 3, 2023
Preceded by Sam Johnson

Texas State Senator for
District 8 (Plano)
In office
January 13, 2015 – January 3, 2019
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 Coolidge-Taylor (married 2002)
Residence Plano, Texas
Alma mater Harvard University
Occupation Businessman

Major in United States Marine Corps Reserve and veteran of the Iraq War

Religion Episcopalian

Military Service
Allegiance United States
Service/branch United States Marine Corps
Rank Major
Battles/wars Iraq War

Nicholas Van Campen Taylor, known as Van Taylor (born August 1, 1972), is a departing RINO U.S. Representative for the 3rd congressional district of his native Texas. He was one of only thirty-five liberal Republicans who voted for Nancy Pelosi's 1/6 Select Committee to engage in a witch-hunt against Donald Trump, his family, and his supporters. Van Taylor was opposed by many conservative groups when he sought a third House term. These dissidents include advocates of patent rights for small inventors and those who oppose mandatory coronavirus vaccines. Located north of his native Dallas, Taylor's district is considered more conservative than Taylor and was made even more conservative by redistricting in 2021.

From 2015 to 2019, Taylor was a state senator in the heavily Republican District 8. He succeeded Sam Johnson, the retiring Republican congressman and military hero, on January 3, 2019 for the Congressional District 3 seat. In the November 6, 2018, general election, Van Taylor defeated the Democrat Lorie Burch, 168,775 (54.3 percent) to 137,547 (44.2 percent). He resides in Plano in Collin County.

From 2011 to 2015, Taylor represented District 66 in the Texas House of Representatives. Van Taylor withdrew from election 2022 after his admitting to story from Breitbart News for his affair with ISIS jihadist and paid her 5000$ dollar to keep her silent.[1]

Background

Taylor was born to attorney Nicholas Cowenhoven Taylor and the former Catherine Hepburn Blaffer, the granddaughter of a wealthy industrialist in Humble, near Houston, Texas;[2]the couple divorced in 1999. After graduating from St. Paul's School, a preparatory school in Concord, New Hampshire, Van Taylor 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.

Career

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 Democrat Thomas Chester "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. (The seat is now held by Republican Pete Sessions, son of the former FBI Director William Sessions.)

Angela Paxton, wife and political advisor of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, is the Republican state senator for State Senate District 8. She succeeded Taylor in January 2019. She defeated the Democrat Mark Phariss in the same election in which Taylor defeated Burch and Ken Paxton won a second term as attorney general.

In July 2020, Taylor voted to remove Civil War-era statues.[3]

He was one of thirty-five Republicans to vote for the Partisan Hack resolution calling for an Investigation on Capital Hill.[4][5].

2022 Election and Departure

On March 1, 2022, Taylor (as the incumbent) faced four challengers in the Republican primary election for his Texas Congressional District 3 seat:

  • Keith Self, a West Point graduate and Army veteran who upon his retirement after 25 years of service, ran for and served as Collin County Judge[6] from 2006-2018; Self was considered to be more conservative than Taylor[7],
  • Suzanne Harp, a businesswoman who was considered even more conservative than both Taylor and Self,
  • Rickey Williams, and
  • Jeremy D. Ivanovskis.

District 3 is heavily GOP-leaning; thus, whoever won the primary would most likely win the November general election.

Taylor finished with the most votes, but only obtained 49% of the votes cast and therefore was set to face Self (the second-place finisher with 26% of votes cast) in a runoff election scheduled for May 24, 2022.[8] Harp would finish third with 21% of votes cast, just over 3,600 votes behind Self, while Williams and Ivanovskis would be also-rans, garnering between them just over 2,500 votes and 4% of the total votes cast.

However, on the Thursday prior to the election, Harp was contacted by Tania Joya, a British native and Plano resident, asking her to confront Taylor regarding an affair the two had, hoping Harp would convince Taylor to drop out of the race and resign his Congressional seat. Joya was already well-known in the British tabloids due to her late husband's actions: he (John Georgelas) had converted to Islam and in 2013 had taken Joya and their then three children to Northern Syria, where he (now going by the name Yahya Abu Hassan) actively fought on behalf of the terrorist group ISIS against the Americans; she had been dubbed "ISIS Bride" as a result. (Joya, who at the time was pregnant with the couple's fourth child, and the children escaped to Turkey three weeks after their arrival; the husband was killed in 2017.) Instead, Harp contacted a reporter who interviewed Joya for 35 minutes; the interview appeared on the right-wing website National File that Sunday afternoon, and the following day on the more noted Breitbart site.[9] Taylor would suspend his campaign the day after the primary election and apologized for his actions, but had not officially withdrawn; the Texas GOP later confirmed his official withdrawal, making Self the GOP nominee in a heavily GOP district. Self later called Taylor's decision "appropriate" due to the high standards to which conservative candidates are held.

References

  1. U.S. Rep. Van Taylor ends reelection campaign after he admits to affair
  2. Catherine Blaffer Bride of Lawyer. The New York Times (April 5, 1970). Retrieved on January 15, 2022.
  3. The List: 72 Republicans Vote with Democrats to Remove Civil War-Era Memorabilia from U.S. Capitol
  4. https://clerk.house.gov/evs/2021/roll154.xml
  5. https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/05/19/35-house-republicans-vote-for-bill-to-establish-january-6-commission/
  6. In Texas, the County Judge more resembles the mayor of a city; only in very small counties does the officeholder actually perform judicial functions.
  7. [1]
  8. In Texas, in primary elections a candidate must gain a majority of votes cast to avoid a runoff; otherwise, the top two candidates face off in a runoff election. Runoffs are not used in the general election; only a plurality of votes is required to win.
  9. [2]

External links