Texas Republican announces he will not seek re-election after affair with ‘Isis bride’

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

A Texas Republican congressman has announced he will not seek re-election after a surprise revelation he had an affair with a woman who was previously married to a former Isis commander, The Texas Tribune reported.

Rep Van Taylor, a Republican from Collin County, announced he had an affair the day after Texas’s primary elections, in which Mr Taylor failed to clear the requisite majority vote to avoid a runoff election in his five-way fight to hold his seat.

Right before the election, the right-wing news site Breitbart reported that Mr Taylor had paid a woman named Tania Joya $5,000 to keep quiet about an affair he had. Ms Joya was previously married to an Isis commander, which earned her the nickname the “Isis bride.” Mr Taylor revealed the rumours were true in an email to supporters.

“About a year ago, I made a horrible mistake that has caused deep hurt and pain among those I love most in this world,” he said. “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.”

Republicans in the district had targeted Mr Taylor after he voted to create a commission to investigate the January 6 riot at the US Capitol where supporters of former president Donald Trump raided the building in hopes of overturning the election results.

Ms Joya shared sexually text messages with Breitbart and revealed that Mr Taylor paid her $5,000 to delete messages about the affair. The right-wing site National File published the texts on Sunday.

Mr Taylor had earned 49 per cent of the vote, with former Collin County Judge Keith Self receiving 27 per cent of the vote and Suzanne Harp earning 21 per cent of the vote.

The congressman was one of a minority in the House of Representatives who voted to establish an independent commission to investigate the 6 January attacks on the US Capitol, a vote that became a dominant line of attack against him by his more devotedly Trump-aligned rivals.

The UK-born Ms Joya was taken from Egypt to Syria by her American husband, John Georgelas, in 2013 along with her three children, according to her against her will. She described her husband, who also went by the name Yahya al-Bahrumi, as one of the most senior Americans in the Islamic State group; shortly after he took the family to Syria, she reported him to American authorities and escaped to the US, where she has since worked on deradicalising converts to extreme Islamism.

This piece has been updated.