Texas Republican Congressman Van Taylor abruptly dropped his reelection bid a day after coming just shy of a majority in his district’s primary after Breitbart reported Taylor had an affair with and paid in $5,000 hush money to a so-called “ISIS bride,” the Texas Tribune reports.
“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 in an email to fans. “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.” The woman whom Taylor had the affair with was reportedly once married to a commander for the Islamic State and a former jihadist herself.
It should go without saying the chances that Taylor would have dropped out if the woman had been white and Christian are virtually zero since adultery isn’t a dealbreaker in today’s GOP.