U.S. congressman Van Taylor of Texas has dropped out of his re-election campaign following reports that he had been in an affair with a woman tied to the Islamic State group.
For months, right-wing websites have been accusing Taylor of having an affair with a woman named Tania Joya, who is the widow of an American-born recruiter for ISIS.
GOP Rep. drops out of congressional re-election race after his extra-marital affair with a former 'ISIS bride' was exposed https://t.co/PvLAYgP083
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) March 3, 2022
According to an interview, Joya said Taylor paid her $5,000 to keep quiet about the affair. She also provided a screenshot showing explicit communications with the congressman.
“I needed help. I was like, just help me out because that’s the least — the very least — he could do,” Joya said. “For him, it was like, ‘OK, on the condition you don’t tell anyone.’ … I didn’t want to tell anybody anything.”
Prior to the bombshell revelation, Joya reportedly contacted Suzanne Harp, Taylor’s rival in the primary, hoping to have Harp privately persuade Taylor to resign from Congress.
“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,” Joya said.
Instead, Harp sent a supporter to interview Joya privately, then shared the interview with the media for the whole world to see.
On Wednesday, Taylor admitted to the affair in a written statement, which did not mention Joya by name.
“About a year ago, I made a horrible mistake that has caused deep hurt and pain among those I love most in this world,” Taylor wrote. “I had an affair, it was wrong, and it was the greatest failure of my life. I want to apologize for the pain I have caused with my indiscretion, most of all to my wife Anne and our three daughters.”
Joya said her affair with Taylor lasted from October 2020 to June 2021, and that she met the congressman through her work as an ex-jihadist helping to rehabilitate extremists.
“It’s really important to de-radicalize them, rehabilitate [these people],” she said of her work. “It’s reprogramming them and giving them a sense of hope in the political process.”
