Tuesday marked the Texas primary, where if a candidate doesn't earn 50 percent of the vote, they go to a runoff. Such was the case for several races, including in Texas' 3rd congressional district between incumbent Rep. Van Taylor, a Republican, and his primary challenger, Keith Self.
However, the runoff election between Taylor and Self, scheduled for May 24, 2022, was canceled soonafter.
In an email to supporters on Wednesday, Taylor admitted to an affair, apologized, and ended his re-election bid.
Though the email did not divulge the identity of who he had an affair with, previous reporting, including an exclusive with Breitbart, revealed it was Tania Joya, a London-born woman who has been coined "ISIS Bride" for having married John Thomas Georgelas, an American-born jihadist who joined the Islamic state. Taylor paid Joya $5,000 toward the end of the affair, which reportedly lasted from October 2020 through June 2021.
The reporting included text messages between Taylor and Joya that are graphic in nature.
According to the Associated Press:
The Dallas Morning News reported Wednesday that Joya contacted Suzanne Harp, another candidate opposing Taylor in the primary, hoping Harp would confront Taylor privately and persuade him to drop out and 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 told the newspaper.
Instead, the newspaper reported, Harp sent a supporter to interview the woman, then shared the interview with a pair of right-wing websites.
In a statement, Harp said the revelations were “deeply concerning, and I’m praying for all involved.”
Suzanne Harp, one of Taylor's primary challengers, received 20.8 percent of the vote and would not have advanced. Self received 26.5 percent of the vote to Taylor's 48.7 percent. Reporting from The Dallas Morning News revealed he was just 800 votes shy of avoiding a runoff. Self, who was previously a judge of the Collin County Court in Texas, is to become the nominee and is likely to win the seat.
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Taylor has received criticism from the Republican Party for his vote in favor of a January 6 commission, though he opposed the more partisan select committee that was created once the commission failed in the U.S. Senate.
Other key races are still headed for runoff races, including between Rep. Henry Cuellar, one of the few pro-life Democrats left in Congress, and squad-backed Jessica Cisneros.
Attorney General Ken Paxton will also face a runoff with George P. Bush for his office.
The gubernatorial race will be between Gov. Greg Abbott (R), the incumbent who managed to fend off primary challengers, and Beto O'Rourke (D), a former congressman who has also run in the Democratic primary for president and who challenged Sen. Ted Cruz for his Senate seat. He lost both races.
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