A Texas Republican congressman apologized and dropped his bid for re-election on Wednesday, after revelations of an affair with a British woman who was once married to an Islamic State leader.
Van Taylor, who was bidding for a third term in the US House of Representatives, said: “About a year ago, I made a horrible mistake that has caused deep hurt and pain among those I love most in this world. I had an affair, it was wrong, and it was the greatest failure of my life.”
In September 2020, Tania Joya spoke to the Guardian. She described her early life in London and how in the early 2000s she met and married John Georgelas, a convert to Islam from Plano, Texas, who eventually took her and their children to Syria.
“John played an essential part in establishing the caliphate and was a leading propagandist for Islamic State, helping to groom other westerners,” Joya wrote, adding that after she left Syria, she “found out that he had died, most likely during US bombing in 2017”.
Taylor, a Harvard graduate and former US marine, was elected in the Texas third congressional district in 2018. Joya told the Dallas Morning News she met him through her work with former jihadists.
Joya, who now lives in Plano, north of Dallas, also told the paper Taylor gave her $5,000 as their nine-month affair wound down, and that she eventually told another Republican candidate about her relationship with the congressman.
She said: “All I wanted was for Suzanne Harp to just say, ‘Hey, I know your little scandal with Tania Joya – would you like to resign before we embarrass you?’ But it didn’t happen like that.”
Harp – “the conservative, pro-Trump, America First candidate”, according to her website – orchestrated coverage of the affair on rightwing sites, the Morning News reported.
Then on Monday, the night before the primary, Harp attacked Taylor for behavior she called “shocking … disturbing and unbecoming of a sitting US representative”.
Taylor’s vote fell, leaving him facing a runoff with the second-placed candidate, Keith Self, that he will not now contest.
In an email quoted by the Morning News, Taylor told supporters: “Today I am announcing I will not continue my campaign to seek re-election to Congress.
“I want to apologise for the pain I have caused with my indiscretion, most of all to my wife Anne and our three daughters. For months, Anne and I have been working to repair the scars left by my actions. I am unworthy, but eternally thankful for her love and forgiveness.”
