Republican candidate's wife arrested, charged with casting 23 fraudulent votes for her husband in the 2020 election

The wife of an Iowa Republican who ran for Congress in 2020 was arrested Thursday and accused of casting 23 fraudulent votes on behalf of her husband.

In an 11-page indictment, prosecutors allege that Kim Phuong Taylor "visited numerous households within the Vietnamese community in Woodbury County," where she collected absentee ballots for people who were not present at the time. Taylor, who was born in Vietnam, then filled out and cast those ballots herself, the indictment alleges, "causing the casting of votes in the names of residents who had no knowledge of and had not consented to the casting of their ballots."

Taylor is also accused of signing voter registration forms on behalf of residents who were not present. In all, prosecutors allege, she engaged in 26 counts of providing false information and voting, three counts of fraudulent registration, and 23 counts of fraudulent voting. Each charge carries a maximum 5-year prison sentence.

The aim, prosecutors allege, was to get her husband, Republican politician Jeremy Taylor, elected to public office.

Jeremy Taylor ran in the 2020 GOP primary for Iowa's 4th congressional district, which at the time was represented by Steve King, a far-right politician with ties to white nationalists. Taylor ended up finishing third, garnering just over 6,400 votes.

But Taylor was more successful in the fall 2020 general election, where he ran as a Republican candidate for the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors. He currently serves as the board's vice chairperson. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The couple met while Jeremy Taylor was teaching at a university in Vietnam, according to his official biography. They have six children.

Kim Taylor's court-appointed attorney, John P. Greer, declined to comment on behalf of his client. According to court documents, she is currently out on bail.