Gene Taylor | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromMississippi | |
| In office October 17, 1989 – January 3, 2011 | |
| Preceded by | Larkin Smith |
| Succeeded by | Steven Palazzo |
| Constituency | 5th district (1989–2003) 4th district (2003–2011) |
| Member of theMississippi State Senate from the 46th district | |
| In office 1984–1989 | |
| Preceded by | ??? |
| Succeeded by | Vic Franckiewicz Jr. |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Gary Eugene Taylor (1953-09-17)September 17, 1953 (age 72) |
| Political party | Democratic (before 2014) Republican (2014–present) |
| Spouse | Margaret Gordon |
| Children | 3 |
| Education | Tulane University (BA) University of Southern Mississippi |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch/service |  United States Coast Guard |
| Years of service | 1971–1984 |
| Unit | United States Coast Guard Reserve |
Gary Eugene Taylor (born September 17, 1953) is an American politician who was a member of theUnited States House of Representatives from 1989 to 2011 and previously a member of theMississippi State Senate from 1983 to 1989. He was defeated for re-election in 2010 byState RepresentativeSteven Palazzo. In 2014, he changed his long-time membership from theDemocratic Party, becoming aRepublican.[1] The same year, he ran for election against Palazzo to return to the House of Representatives. Securing only 43 percent of the vote, Taylor lost in the primary.
Following his congressional career, Taylor served on theHancock County Port and Harbor Commission until 2014. He consulted for the defense industry before becoming a director forOverseas Shipholding Group in 2018.
Taylor was born inNew Orleans on September 17, 1953. He attendedDe La Salle High School, graduating in 1971.[2] He graduated fromTulane University in 1976 where he majored in political science and history.[3] He completed additional post-graduate work in business and economics at theUniversity of Southern Mississippi from 1978 through 1980.
Taylor worked as a sales representative for Stone Container Corporation, working a territory fromNew Orleans to theFlorida panhandle, from 1977 through 1989.
From 1971 through 1984, Taylor served in theUnited States Coast Guard Reserve,[2] where he attained the rank petty officer first class. While in the coast guard, he commanded a search and rescue boat and earned several commendations.
Taylor was elected to theBay St. Louis City Council in 1981,[3] and then to a vacant seat in theMississippi State Senate in 1983. As a State Senator, Taylor and fellow Senator Steven Hale filed alawsuit challenging the Senate powers of DemocraticLieutenant GovernorBrad Dye. Taylor and Hale claimed that Dye's control of committee appointments violated the state constitution'sseparation of powers. TheSupreme Court of Mississippi sided with Dye, but the suit against a powerful leader from his own party helped establish Taylor's reputation for political independence.
Taylor was a member of theBlue Dog Coalition, and his voting record was one of the most conservative among Democrats in the House. According to a 2011 survey by theNational Journal, Taylor was the most conservative Democrat in the House.[4]
He represented a district that had turned almost solidly Republican at the national level, though as late as 2010 most local offices were split between the two parties. The 4th has not supported the official Democraticpresidential candidate since1956 (when the Democrats nominatedAdlai Stevenson). During Taylor's final term, it was the most Republican district in the nation to be represented by a Democrat, with aCook Partisan Voting Index of R+20. In 2000, 2004, and 2008, it gave the Republican presidential candidate his best total in the state. It was a foregone conclusion that Taylor would be succeeded by a Republican once he retired.
A leading Democratic Member of theHouse Armed Services Committee, Taylor led committee and floor fights to improve the medical benefits of military retirees and extendTRICARE health insurance to members of theNational Guard and Reserves. Taylor also focused on U.S. policy inLatin America, sponsoring the successful cap on the number of U.S. troops that can be sent toColombia without explicit Congressional authorization. Taylor also was a leading critic of theBase Realignment and Closure process, accusing theDepartment of Defense of smuggling in policy changes that were unrelated to excess capacity or facilities. Taylor served as the Ranking Democrat on the Projection Forces Subcommittee in the 109th Congress, and became chairman of the renamed Subcommittee on Seapower and Expeditionary Forces in the 110th Congress. He and the previous subcommittee chairmanRoscoe Bartlett (R-MD), who became the ranking member of the subcommittee, advocate for morenuclear-powered surface ships in order to reduce theNavy's dependence on imported oil. Taylor was also a member of the Readiness subcommittee of the Armed Services committee in the 110th Congress.[5]
InHouse Armed Services Committee hearings, Taylor was sharply critical ofSecretary of DefenseDonald Rumsfeld and other administration witnesses, particularly regarding shortages of armor for troops and vehicles inIraq. He decried the lack of urgency to speed up production and procurement of armored vehicles and jammers to block the signals ofimprovised explosive devices (IEDs).
He voted for all four articles ofimpeachment against Bill Clinton in 1998—the only Democrat in Congress to do so. He was one of just five Democrats to support at least one article of impeachment.[6] He refused to endorse Clinton's reelection bid in 1996, but refused to switch parties despite numerous overtures from the Republicans.[7] In the 2004 Democratic primaries, Taylor endorsedWesley Clark. He voted forJohn McCain in 2008.[8] The Christian Coalition gave Taylor an overall rating of 76% and he has endorsed theFederal Marriage Amendment.
Taylor was a strong critic of theBush Administration'sfiscal policy. He voted against the tax cuts passed in 2001 and 2003, claiming that the cuts contained in those bills would only increase thenational debt. He derided the prescription drug plan passed in 2003 as a giveaway to companies that donate to the Republican Party. He was one of the House's most vehement opponents of free trade agreements and was strongly opposed to the Bush administration's proposals for reformingSocial Security. He also voted at times with moreliberal members of the House with regards toCuba. Since coming to the House, he voted in favor of mostcampaign finance laws and other laws favored by moreprogressive elements of the Democratic Party to reform politics.
Taylor was a staunch and consistent opponent of most free trade agreements. He voted againstNAFTA andGATT.[9][10] He voted against fast-track authority in 1998 and 2002.[11][12] He also opposedPermanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) withChina in 2000.[13]
Taylor has a mixed voting record on environmental issues; he has voted repeatedly against the ban ondrilling in Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR),[14][15] while voting at other times with the mainstream of his party. He has also denouncedVice PresidentDick Cheney's ties toHalliburton.
In 2006, Taylor was the only Democrat to support all four amendments to the bill to renew theVoting Rights Act.[16][17][18][19] However, Taylor did vote in favor of final passage of the unamended bill, as did all House Democrats.[20]
Taylor has been a staunch advocate of maintaining the "Buy American" requirements inDefense contracting, and of maintaining theJones Act requirements that vessels operating between U.S. ports must be American-flagged, American-made, owned by U.S. citizens, and crewed by U.S. citizens. In February 2007, he was one of two Democrats to opposeH CON RES 63, which expressed opposition to atroop surge in theIraq War.[21]
Much of Taylor's district took a direct hit fromHurricane Katrina, which destroyed his home in Bay St. Louis (27 miles west of Biloxi) as well as Lott's home in Pascagoula.[22] He moved toKiln while he rebuilt his home in Bay St. Louis.
When formerFederal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) directorMichael D. Brown appeared before the committee, Taylor reacted angrily to Brown's attempts to put primary responsibility for the failed response at the state and local level. Taylor seemed particularly upset that severalfirst responders inHancock County, his home county, were forced to loot aWal-Mart to get food and supplies. They also had to wait several days after the storm before they got any help from FEMA workers. He told Brown that FEMA "fell on (its) face" in its response to Katrina, which he said rated "an F-minus in my book."[23]
In April 2009, Taylor voted against theMatthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.[24]
After one term in the State Senate, Taylor ran as the Democratic candidate to succeedRepublican incumbent andHouse Minority WhipTrent Lott in what was then the 5th District when Lott made a successful run for theSenate. He lost toHarrison CountySheriffLarkin I. Smith by almost 10 points. TheDemocratic Congressional Campaign Committee offered very little help to Taylor, believing the district to be too heavily Republican.Vice PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush defeatedMichael Dukakis by approximately a 70 to 30 margin in the district, and Lott beatWayne Dowdy by a similar margin in the Senate race. Although about 30,000 Bush and Lott voters split their tickets to vote for Taylor, he could not overcome the Republican tide in the district.
Smith died in a plane crash eight months later. In the special election to fill Smith's seat, Taylor picked up 42 percent of the vote to lead RepublicanThomas H. Anderson, Jr. and DemocratMike Moore in the first round. Some leading Democrats had tried to convince Taylor to stand aside and not seek the position in deference to Moore, who was the state's Attorney General and who was also aGulf Coast resident, but Taylor doubled Moore's vote total on the first ballot. Two weeks later, Taylor beat Anderson, Lott's Chief of Staff, with 65 percent of the vote. Taylor took office on October 24, 1989.
Taylor won a full term in 1990 with 81 percent of the vote against realtor Sheila Smith, the widow of his predecessor in the House. He easily turned back spirited reelection challenges in 1992, 1994 and 1996, taking over 60 percent of the vote each time. However, he was reelected in 1998 with 77 percent of the vote and was reelected five more times after that by an average of 70 percent of the vote. His district was renumbered the 4th after the 2000redistricting cost Mississippi a congressional seat.
Taylor was defeated by Republican state representativeSteven Palazzo on November 2, 2010. His vote againstBarack Obama for president in 2008 became a campaign issue when Taylor released campaign ads pointing to his support of McCain as evidence of his bipartisanship. However, Palazzo attacked Taylor for supporting Pelosi as Speaker and claimed Taylor voted with his party's leadership 82 percent of the time.[8] Taylor was endorsed by theNational Right to Life Committee.[25]
In the following lame duck session of Congress, Taylor dropped his opposition to the Navy's plan to buy both classes ofLittoral combat ship, even though this greatly reduced the chances that a shipyard in his former district would then be able to bid for follow on contracts.[26]
Proving just how Republican this district had become, no Democrat running in the district has cleared the 40 percent mark since Taylor left office, and only one has even cleared 30 percent.
Taylor opposed Palazzo in the Republican primary in theJune 2014 election.[27] Taylor was seeking to become the first Mississippi U.S. Representative since 1884 to return to the House of Representatives after losing reelection.[28] In an op-ed that ran inThe Sun-Herald, the largest newspaper in the district, Taylor said that when he began seriously considering a bid for his own seat, he never even considered running as a Democrat because he had always considered himself a conservative, and the Democrats' turn to the left made him realize that "my views and vision naturally fit in the Republican Party.[29]
Taylor, who was out-raised by Palazzo by almost 6-to-1 and out-spent by over 10-to 1, ran a grassroots campaign, emphasizing his work to secure funding for the district in the wake ofHurricane Katrina and his efforts to support veterans and funding for military bases in the district. He contrasted this with Palazzo's vote against funding forHurricane Sandy relief efforts and supporting sequestration which cut the defense budget.[30] Taylor lost the primary, securing 43% of the vote to Palazzo's 50.5%, coming a few thousand votes short of forcing Palazzo into a runoff.[31]
Taylor was appointed to theHancock County Port and Harbor Commission by District 3 Supervisor Lisa Cowand in March 2012[32] and served on the commission until 2014; he provided oversight forStennis International Airport and Port Bienville Industrial Park.[33] From September 2011 to December 2013, Taylor was a consultant at Navistar Defense, a defense firm.[34][33]
Taylor has worked as a director forOverseas Shipholding Group since 2018.[33]
Taylor and his wife Margaret have three children. He holds a black belt inTaekwondo. Taylor is Roman Catholic.[35]
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromMississippi's 5th congressional district 1989–2003 | Constituency abolished |
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromMississippi's 4th congressional district 2003–2011 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded byas Former U.S. Representative | Order of precedence of the United States as Former U.S. Representative | Succeeded byas Former U.S. Representative |
