Matthew Ung, the chairman of the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors, is calling on fellow board member Jeremy Taylor to resign. Taylor’s wife, Kim, was convicted yesterday on 52 counts of voter fraud connected to elections in 2020 when her husband’s name was on the ballot.
“I hate the situation. I hate the situation that I’m put in, that the board is put in, but this is what putting principles over politics looks like,” Ung said. “It’s asking someone that you’ve served with and done good things with for nine years to resign when things just get truly out of hand.”
Jeremy Taylor has not been charged, but court documents filed before his wife’s trial referred to him as an unindicted co-conspirator. “This is a political Hindenburg of a case hurdling towards the state of Iowa and has a lot of repercussions, especially for Republicans,” Ung said, “and it is not something that I think the board is going to provide political cover for.”
Ung is a Republican, as is Taylor.
“The thing that has everyone in the community confused and upset is who is taking the fall here. My heart goes out to Kim, my heart goes out to their kids,” Ung said. “…There was never a time in my campaigns where I did not know what my wife was going to help my campaign. It’s just something you don’t lose track of…what your wife is going to help your campaign. I think everyone knows that.”
Iowa does not have a recall process for removing elected officials. It would take action from the Woodbury County Attorney to remove Taylor from office, but Ung indidcated that’s not something he wants to “foist” upon the county attorney. “This is a political question for now,” Ung said. “Yes, the county attorney can file something to remove a county officer, but there’s thresholds for that and technically (Taylor) hasn’t been charged.”
The Taylors have six children. Neither Kim nor Jeremy Taylor took the stand to testify in her federal trial. In a written statement, Jeremy Taylor said the jury’s guilty verdicts were not the outcome the couple had hoped for, but he and his wife are thankful for friends, family and community members who have stood by them.
(By Woody Gottburg, KSCJ, Sioux City)