A seventh generation Texan, Van Taylor is a family man, businessman, and decorated Iraq War Veteran. Growing up, Van earned his Eagle Scout from the future President George Bush.

On 9-11 Van swore to always serve and make a difference.

Van deployed to Iraq where he fought with 2nd Force Reconnaissance Company. For his service in Iraq, the Marine Corps awarded Captain Taylor the Combat Action Ribbon, Presidential Unit Citation, and the Navy Commendation Medal with “V” for valor.

Van and his wife, Anne, married after his return from Iraq and are the proud parents of three young girls: Laura, Helen, and Susie.

From April 2010 to January 2015, Van Taylor represented District 66 in the Texas House of Representatives. From January 13, 2015 – January 3, 2019, Taylor served as a Member of the Texas Senate, representing the Eighth Senate District of Texas. On January 3, 2019, Van Taylor was sworn in as a Member of the United States Congress, representing Texas Third Congressional District.

Congressman Van Taylor is proud to serve on two influential House Committees in the 116th Congress: the Committee on Homeland Security, specifically, the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection and Innovation (CIPI) and the Subcommittee on Oversight, Management and Accountability (OMA) and the House Committee on Education, where he serves on the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education and the Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions.

Today, Van, his wife, and their three daughters reside in Plano near the land Van’s great-grandfather farmed during the Great Depression.

Hunter Baker, J.D., Ph.D. serves as dean of arts and sciences and professor of political science at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee. He is the author of three books (The End of Secularism, Political Thought: A Student’s Guide, and The System Has a Soul), has contributed chapters to several others, and has written for a wide variety of print and digital publications. He is the winner of the 2011 Michael Novak Award conferred by the Acton Institute and has lectured widely on religion and liberty. In addition to his work at Union, Baker also serves as an associate editor for the Journal of Markets and Morality and as a contributing editor for Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity. He is also a research fellow of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.

Lowell Ponte is the co-author (with Craig R. Smith) of numerous books, including Money, Morality & The Machine and The Future Looks Like Baltimore. His diverse background includes being a reporter in Washington, D.C., a legislative aide in the California Assembly, one of two co-owners of a successful Hollywood public relations firm, a consultant and speaker for various corporations and trade associations, and dean of a distance-learning university.

He worked for 15 years as a roving editor for Reader’s Digest magazine. He has done reporting in 33 countries from Indonesia and Israel to Communist Cuba. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times and many other publications.

Ponte, a native of Southern California, hosted radio talk shows in Los Angeles for 17 years. More than 300 radio stations have carried his nationally syndicated radio shows.

On television, Ponte worked for four years as commentator and reporter on KCET-TV, the West Coast Production Center of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in Los Angeles.

Ponte is author of “The Cooling” (Prentice-Hall), a prophetic investigation of global climate change and environmental modification warfare that has been used as a textbook at the U.S. military’s National Defense College. He is a former futurist for a Pentagon-consulted think tank, where he developed scenarios for exotic kinds of warfare and high-tech terrorism.

Ponte, who holds the equivalent of a master’s degree in international relations and a Ph.D. in English, also is founder and President of several organizations, including the Jefferson’s Birthday Committee dedicated to making Thomas Jefferson’s April 13 birthday a “National Holiday for Taxpayers.”

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