House Republican leaders are calling on Rep. Tony Gonzales to abandon his reelection campaign — and the fallout from a confessed affair with a former staffer who later died by suicide is now shaking the halls of Congress in ways that go far beyond one congressman’s career.
The scandal erupted publicly this week after Gonzales, who represents Texas’ 23rd Congressional District, admitted on the Joe Pags Show to having a sexual relationship with Regina Santos-Aviles, a former staffer in his Uvalde office. Santos-Aviles died by suicide in September 2025 after setting herself on fire. The House Ethics Committee has since opened a formal investigation into whether Gonzales engaged in sexual misconduct, and Speaker Mike Johnson and other House Republican leaders wasted little time making their position clear.
Leadership Moves to Push Gonzales Out
The joint statement from Johnson and House GOP leadership was blunt. “The Ethics Committee has announced an investigation into Congressman Tony Gonzales’s conduct, and we urge them to act expeditiously,” the statement read. “We have encouraged him to address these very serious allegations directly with his constituents and his colleagues. In the meantime, Leadership has asked Congressman Gonzales to withdraw from his race for reelection.” It’s a remarkable public break — the kind of pressure that rarely comes from within your own party’s leadership.
Gonzales, for his part, didn’t deny the relationship. “I made a mistake and I had a lapse in judgment, and there was a lack of faith, and I take full responsibility for those actions,” he said during the radio interview. He was equally emphatic about one thing: “I had absolutely nothing to do with her tragic passing, and in fact, I was shocked just as much as everyone else.” He added that he has since reconciled with his wife and that his faith “is as strong as ever.”
Text Messages and a Troubling Timeline
But it’s not that simple. Text messages revealed by Santos-Aviles before her death showed Gonzales asking her to send a “sexy pic” and making explicit comments even after she told him he was “going too far.” The messages paint a picture of a power imbalance that critics say goes well beyond a mutual “lapse in judgment.”
And then there’s what happened after. According to Bobby Barrera, the attorney representing Santos-Aviles’ widower, Gonzales stopped communicating with her entirely after June 2024 — a period of silence that Barrera frames as something far more deliberate. “That’s the retaliation that she was receiving,” Barrera stated. “That’s the beginning of the end of her career as a result of Tony’s sexual relationship with her.” Santos-Aviles died roughly three months later.
A Primary Race Suddenly Transformed
How bad is Gonzales’ political position right now? He was already struggling before any of this broke publicly. In the March primary, neither Gonzales nor his opponent Brandon Herrera cleared 50 percent — sending the race to a May runoff, with Herrera finishing ahead by close to 1,000 ballots. Now, with his own party’s leadership publicly urging him to quit, his path forward looks considerably narrower.
Herrera, known online as “The AK Guy,” didn’t miss the moment. “I would like to thank Speaker Johnson and House leadership for holding Congressman Tony Gonzales accountable for actions that have tarnished the office,” he posted. “I’m looking forward to representing the district the way the people of West Texas have always deserved.”
A Wider Reckoning — Briefly, and Then Blocked
Still, some members of Congress tried to use the Gonzales case to force a broader reckoning. Rep. Nancy Mace introduced a resolution that would have required the public release of ethics records on all members of Congress investigated for sexual harassment. The House killed it — decisively — with a vote of 357 to 65. Thirty-two Texas representatives voted to block the release.
Mace didn’t take it quietly. “Tony Gonzales showed us what is happening in Congress. But he is not the only one,” she declared. “The American people deserve answers. Staff deserve answers. Women deserve answers. No more protection for predators in Congress.” The resolution failed. The records stay sealed. And 357 members of the House, from both parties, voted to keep it that way.
Whatever happens to Gonzales in the May runoff, that vote may be the most telling number to come out of this entire episode — a quiet, lopsided reminder of just how much Congress prefers to handle its own scandals in the dark.
