Congressman Tony Gonzales of Texas.
Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Texas representative Tony Gonzales’s reelection campaign has been roiled by accusations that he had an affair with a female staffer who died by suicide last year. Gonzales has so far remained defiant, alleging a political motivation behind the claims and trying to ride out the scandal until March 3, when he faces off against a farther-right challenger in a competitive primary. But the release of Gonzales’s highly sexual text exchanges with the aide has prompted calls for his resignation even from his Republican colleagues whose control of the House would further weaken with his potential exit.
The San Antonio Express-News obtained a series of text messages sent between Gonzales and Regina Santos-Aviles, the director of his Uvalde district office, that appeared to show the congressman pressuring her into sexualized conversations. In one exchange from May 9, 2024, Gonzales wrote to Santos-Aviles, “Send me a sexy pic.”
Santos-Aviles, a married mother of one, rebuffed the congressman, writing, “I swear my life has been a Telenovela for the past seven days. You don’t really want a hot picture of me.”
Gonzales responded back, “Yes I do,” and “Hurry.”
In other exchanges, Gonzales peppered Santos-Aviles with sexual questions, asking her for her “favorite position” and other preferences. During one of these back-and-forths, Santos-Aviles responded, “This is going too far boss.”
The Express-News obtained the text messages through Adrian Aviles, the husband of Santos-Aviles, who told the outlet he used a forensic-data firm to extract the messages from her phone in preparation for potential litigation against Gonzales.
The reported text messages further inflamed a growing election-year backlash to Gonzales sparked by recent reporting from the Express-News, which revealed Santos-Aviles told a colleague in Gonzales’s office about the affair prior to her death. Last year, Santos-Aviles was found in her backyard with severe burns and was later pronounced dead at a hospital. Authorities ruled her death was a suicide by self-immolation.
The lurid details from the private conversations set against the background of the tragic death of a political staffer soon became too much for Gonzales’s fellow Republicans. Representative Brandon Gill, a Republican member of Texas’s congressional delegation, wrote on social media, “America deserves better. Tony should drop out of the race.”
Representative Anna Paulina Luna of Florida said she agreed with Gill and suggested other Texas members “should be condemning a sitting Member of Congress asking for explicit photos of their staff.” Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado shared an image of the purported text messages, writing, “@RepTonyGonzales, RESIGN!”
Nancy Mace, a South Carolina congresswoman and gubernatorial candidate called the messages “disgusting and inexcusable” and said Gonzales should resign and “be held fully accountable for what he’s done.
“A Member of Congress. Harassing his own staffer in the middle of the night. Asking for explicit photos. Pressing her on sexual positions. Regina Santos-Aviles told him he was going too far. He did not care. He kept going,” Mace said. “She is gone now. Her son is growing up without his mother. And Tony Gonzales is campaigning like nothing happened.”
On Tuesday, Kentucky representative Thomas Massie said he was joining his fellow Republicans Mace, Luna, and Boebert in calling for Gonzales’s resignation, suggesting President Donald Trump got it wrong when he endorsed the congressman. “Where are the other men in the GOP? Trump is infamous for making terrible endorsements — this is one and it should be revoked,” he wrote.
Gonzales has denied speculation that he engaged in an affair with Santos-Aviles, with reports emerging soon after her death. Last year, he called the rumors “completely untruthful.” But with the renewed focus on the allegations, Gonzales has taken a more defensive stance, rejecting the reporting as just election-year politics. “During my six years in Congress not a single formal complaint has been levied against my office. Now days away from an election, coordinated political attacks reign [sic] in. IT WONT WORK. Half way through early voting and the intensity resides w/ TG voters. I’d rather be us than them,” Gonzales wrote Sunday.
The congressman has also levied allegations of blackmail, sharing part of an out-of-context email from an attorney representing Santos-Aviles’s husband on social media appearing to discuss a $300,000 settlement. “I WILL NOT BE BLACKMAILED,” Gonzalez said. “Disgusting to see people profit politically and financially off a tragic death.”
Gonzales is currently seeking his fourth term in office and is set to face off against gun-rights activist Brandon Herrera, former representative Quico Canseco, and Marine veteran Keith Barton in the Republican primary on March 3. Herrera, positioned as the strongest contender against the more moderate Gonzales, has been pushing for the congressman’s resignation since news of the affair broke and said there’s even more to the alleged scandal. “Tony is an evil man who must resign,” Herrera said Friday.
A recent Political Intelligence poll reported by the New York Post found that 45 percent of likely Republican voters said they would support Herrera in the primary to 21 percent for Gonzales. The poll was conducted from February 18 to February 20, not long after reports emerged about the alleged affair. The Texas 23rd Congressional District is viewed as a safely Republican seat, which bodes well for the more far-right Herrera and his chances in the fall if he wins the nomination.
Gonzales’s reelection bid had been backed by both House Speaker Mike Johnson and President Trump, who made his support public on social media. “Tony Gonzales has my Complete and Total Endorsement for Re-Election — HE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN!,” he wrote on Truth Social in December.
The pressure on the congressman comes as the Republican Party’s slim hold on the House of Representatives grows even more tenuous. When pressed by reporters, Johnson stopped short of calling for Gonzales to step aside and said investigations must be allowed to play out, pointing to an ongoing inquiry helmed by the Office of Congressional Conduct. “There are serious accusations. It must be taken seriously, and I’ve told him he’s got to address that with his constituents, and he’s in the process of doing that,” he said.
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