In 1955, he was elected to represent Anson County in the North Carolina House of Representatives and served through 1967, the two last years as speaker. In May 1968, Taylor won the Democratic primary for Lieutenant Governor over Margaret Harper, the first woman to campaign for a major party's nomination for the post. He then went on to defeat State Rep. Don H. Garren in the general election of 1968 by the narrowest margin in decades. He served as Lieutenant Governor for Governor Bob Scott from 1969 to 1973. He was close to the governor and assisted with the legislative agenda. To pay for increased spending on education and infrastructure, the administration favored increased taxes, including tobacco taxes. The period was marked by racial unrest, especially at the universities. Taylor opposed segregation and other racial inequalities, but did not at the time speak so clearly against racism as he would later do. Scott was constitutionally prevented from running for another term as governor, and Taylor chose to become a candidate for the Democratic nomination for new governor. His prime opponents for the nomination were Skipper Bowles, a wealthy businessman who also had political and administrative experience, and Wilbur Hobby of the AFL-CIO. In the May 1972 primary, Bowles received about 372,000 votes to Taylor's about 310,000 The tax hikes had been unpopular and contributed to Taylor's relatively weak result. And while Taylor had run a traditional campaign, Bowles had introduced more sophisticated methods with regard to focus groups, opinion polls and television commercials with the help of political consultant Walter DeVries. Taylor was defeated in the by Bowles after a tough race where Taylor was supported by the Scott wing of the party, while Bowles was supported by much of the old Terry Sanford wing, as well as making inroads with black voters. As one of many people, Taylor received a couple of votes for the Democratic Vice-Presidential nomination at the 1972 Democratic National Convention. In his 2014 book The Making of a Southern Democracy, political scientist Tom Eamon describes Taylor as a calm and reasonable politician, but lacking somewhat in hunger for political power and sometimes informally described by contemporaries as being a little lazy.
After the defeat in 1972, he retired from electoral politics and resumed the practice of law in Wadesboro. He was a member of several boards. In 2005, Taylor published the book Fourth Down & Goal to Go where he wrote about life and politics in Anson County and North Carolina generally. Taylor was married to Elizabeth Lockhart Taylor for over sixty years. They had three children and four grandchildren. In his older days, Taylor suffered from dementia.. He died on April 22, 2018 at the age of 94 in Wadesboro, North Carolina. He was a member of the Calvary Episcopal Church of Wadesboro, a Rotarian and a Freemason. The North Carolina General Assembly honored Taylor and his father in a resolution in 2010. South Piedmont Community College named a center after him and his wife and part of a local road has got his name.
