Texas GOP Congressman Drops Out Of Primary After Affair Exposed With Widow Of ISIS Fighter

A Republican congressman in Texas has dropped out of his own re-election bid after a political opponent helped expose a secret affair he had with the widow of a former recruiter for the Islamic State (ISIS).

On Wednesday, Rep. Van Taylor (R-Texas) declared that he would be forgoing his renomination bid amidst a tough primary in a northern Texas district he held for two terms. In a statement, Taylor expressed remorse for an affair with Tania Joya, the wife of an American ISIS fighter named John Georgelas. who was killed in Syria in 2017.

"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 without mentioning Joya by name. "I had an affair, it was wrong, and it was the greatest failure of my life."

Taylor was first elected to the seat in 2018 and he was among a handful of House Republicans who rejected former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen by incumbent President Joe Biden. Taylor was also one of only 35 Republicans who voted to establish a commission tasked with investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.

Prior to his revelation, Taylor was locked in a competitive primary with two other Republicans, former judge Keith Self and Suzanne Harp, a former banker who received Trump’s endorsement ahead of the primary.

News of the affair broke on Feb. 27 when Joya sat down for an interview with National File, a far-right news site known for peddling conspiracy theories. In a 35-minute interview, Joya admitted to having a nine-month affair with Taylor that began after the two met while she was working on a local deradicalization program run by a community church.

In 2013, Joya traveled to Syria with her then-husband John Georgelas, known by his ISIS nom de guerre as Yahya al-Bahrumi. Georgelas, a Greek-American from Plano, Texas was a convert to Islam and one of the chief propagandists for the jihadist group before he was killed fighting for them in 2017.

Three weeks after arriving with Georgelas in Syria, Joya said she fled to Turkey with her children and contacted the FBI. After being told she would not be charged with membership in ISIS, she returned to the United States.

The affair lasted from October 2020 to June 2021. According to Joya, she requested financial assistance from Taylor to help pay her bills which he provided in the form of $5,000 in exchange for not divulging their hidden romance. Speaking to the Dallas Morning News on Tuesday, Joya said she grew tired at seeing her lover’s face on billboards around town when she reached out to Harp, the pro-Trump candidate, on Feb. 24.

"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,” said Joya in her interview.

Instead, Harp had put her in touch with a supporter which ultimately led to the National File interview that exposed her affair with Taylor. In a statement to NPR, Harp said the revelations were "deeply concerning, and I'm praying for all involved."

"Politics should build up our families, our communities, and our political parties. This story breaks my heart, both as a wife and as an American. Politics should never tear these sacred institutions apart," the candidate wrote.