Van Taylor


Nicholas Van Campen Taylor, known as Van Taylor, is an American businessman and politician from Plano, Texas. He is the U.S. Representative for Texas' 3rd congressional district. The district includes much of Collin County, a suburban county north of Dallas. A veteran of the Iraq War and a member of the Republican Party, he represented District 8 in the Texas Senate for a single term from 2015 to 2019. He also previously served in the Texas House of Representatives for District 66 in western Collin County.

Early life, education, and career

A seventh-generation Texan, Taylor was born in Dallas. He is a descendant of Humble Oil co-founder Robert Lee Blaffer. He grew up in Midland, Texas, where he attended the Hillander School and San Jacinto Junior High School. He graduated from St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire. He subsequently graduated in three years from Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from which he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in history.
From January 2002 to December 2018, Taylor worked for Churchill Capital Company, a real estate investment banking and principal investment firm, as a real estate investment banker. He previously worked for McKinsey & Company and Trammell Crow Company.
Taylor married Anne Coolidge, a real estate investment manager, in 2004.

Military service

In Iraq, Taylor was assigned to the Marine Corps' Company C, 4th Reconnaissance Battalion and fought with 2nd Force Reconnaissance Company. As a captain, Taylor led missions in advance of Task Force Tarawa during Operation Iraqi Freedom, which detected and defeated several Fedayeen ambushes. He also participated in a casualty evacuation of thirty-one wounded Marines, transporting them safely to medical treatment.
Taylor's military decorations include the Navy Commendation Medal with "V", the Combat Action Ribbon, and the Presidential Unit Citation. Taylor left the Marine Corps Reserve as a major.

2006 campaign for U.S. House

In 2005 and 2006, Taylor ran for Texas's 17th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives. He won the Republican primary with 54.03% of the vote. With 40.31% of the vote in the general election, he lost to incumbent Democrat Chet Edwards.

Texas House of Representatives

2010 campaign

On December 2, 2009, Taylor announced his candidacy for the District 66 Texas State House seat. Plano city council member Mabrie Jackson had already resigned from the council to enter the House race. On November 30, 2009, incumbent representative Brian McCall announced that he would not run for re-election. Observers speculated that McCall had told Jackson that he would step down so that she could get a head start in the campaign. McCall also endorsed Jackson as his preferred successor.
The candidates in the Republican primary held on March 2, 2010, were Wayne Richards, Jackson, and Taylor. While Jackson earned the largest number of votes in the primary, she was shy of the 50 percent plus one vote required to win the nomination outright. Wayne Richards promptly endorsed the runner-up candidate, Taylor, who then defeated Jackson in the April run-off election. McCall left the House seat early, and Taylor was sworn into office on April 20, 2010, by Collin County Judge Keith Self.

Texas State Senate

2014 campaign

On August 2, 2013, Taylor announced he would seek the Republican Party's 2014 nomination for the Texas Senate, District 8 seat held by Ken Paxton, who was stepping down to run for state attorney general.
Meanwhile, two Republicans, Matt Shaheen and Glenn Callison, competed in the May 27 runoff election to succeed Taylor in House District 66. In the primary held on March 4, 2014, Shaheen led with 4,880 votes ; Callison trailed with 4,001 votes. The third candidate, Stacy Chen, held the remaining 1,116 votes. Shaheen won the runoff, 4,612 to 3,886 and then won the November 4, general election against a Libertarian Party candidate.

Political positions

Taylor is considered a major ally of the Tea Party movement. He was endorsed by the North Texas Tea Party for his 2014 campaign for Texas Senate, District 8.
In 2017, Taylor introduced legislation to establish a registry of individuals who have been barred from employment at an educational facility. The measure, if adopted, would prevent any school employee, not just administration and faculty, from working at a school if the person is found to have engaged in an improper relationship with a student.

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

2018 general election

In August 2017, Taylor announced that he would run for the United States House of Representatives for Texas's 3rd congressional district. Incumbent 13-term Republican Sam Johnson had announced his retirement. Taylor was endorsed by the Club for Growth, a national conservative group, and With Honor, a cross-partisan political group supporting next-generation military veterans. Taylor secured the nomination after easily winning the March 6 primary. Taylor won the general election on November 6, 2018, with 54.3% percent of votes cast. His victory continued a run of Republican dominance in one of the first areas of Texas to turn Republican. The GOP has held the seat without interruption since a 1968 special election, and Taylor is only the fourth person to represent it since then.

Tenure

Committee assignments

Congressman Taylor currently serves on the Financial Services Committee.

Starting on January 16, 2020

Electoral history