Long before the affair that ended in a woman's death and a House Ethics investigation, Rep. Tony Gonzales was allegedly firing off sexually explicit texts to a different staffer, pressing her for nude photos and sex across hundreds of messages while running for Congress in 2020.
The San Antonio Express-News reported that Gonzales, then a Republican primary candidate for Texas's 23rd Congressional District, sent the messages to his then-political director over a period that included June 2020. The woman, who was not named in the report, said she repeatedly turned him down. The New York Post reported on the revelations, noting it had not independently verified the text messages and had reached out to Gonzales's office for comment.
The alleged exchanges paint a picture of persistent, unwanted sexual pressure from a married man, a father of six, directed at a woman working for his campaign. And they raise a hard question: if this pattern was already in place years earlier, how did Gonzales end up in a later affair with another aide, Regina Santos-Aviles, who died after pouring gasoline on herself and setting herself on fire last September?
The texts attributed to Gonzales are blunt. One message from June 2020 allegedly asked, "What kind of panties do you wear?" Another reportedly told the woman to "squeeze my balls." On June 15, 2020, the Express-News reported Gonzales wrote: "I know what I want and won't stop until I get it."
The former political director, described as about a decade older than the 45-year-old congressman and a military veteran, said she rejected him again and again. She responded to one message with a facepalm emoji. She urged him not to behave "like that in Congress."
One quoted text from Gonzales stood out for its casual acknowledgment of her refusals: "47 nos is about my limit." He kept going anyway.
The woman told the Express-News she denied ever having a physical relationship with Gonzales, though she acknowledged meeting him at her home several times. She described herself as "not totally innocent in all this" but said she felt "played."
Gonzales won his 2020 race and was sworn into the House of Representatives in early 2021. The former political director later fell out with him politically, bashing him online for supporting the formation of the House Select Jan. 6 Committee. By 2024, she had volunteered for Brandon Herrera's campaign against Gonzales in the Republican primary.
But the more consequential chapter of this story involves a different woman entirely. In 2024, Gonzales began an affair with Regina Santos-Aviles, another staffer and a mother of one. Santos-Aviles privately admitted to the affair with a colleague. Last September, she died after pouring gasoline on herself and being set on fire.
News of the affair broke in the Daily Mail shortly after her death. For months, Gonzales denied the rumors. At the Texas Tribune Festival, he said, "The rumors are completely untruthful, and Regina's family has asked for privacy," as Breitbart reported.
Then, on March 4, the day after the Texas Republican primary, Gonzales reversed course. He went on "The Joe Pags Show" and admitted to the affair.
"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."
That admission came only after text messages published in February, allegedly showing Gonzales asking Santos-Aviles for explicit photos and discussing sexual topics, had already made the denials untenable. The Washington Examiner reported that Santos-Aviles's husband, Adrian Aviles, released screenshots he said showed the congressman sending explicit messages and trying to arrange meetings with his wife.
In one of the alleged exchanges, Santos-Aviles wrote: "This is too far, Tony." Adrian Aviles told the San Antonio Express-News he disclosed the alleged affair to Gonzales and staffers in June 2024 after discovering the messages. "I'm releasing them now because I don't want to be called a liar and don't want her to be called a liar," he said.
Gonzales also said on the radio show that he had "absolutely nothing to do with her tragic passing" and was "shocked just as much as everyone else." The husband of the deceased aide has disputed that characterization, saying Gonzales abused his power.
The House Ethics Committee, now known as the Office of Congressional Conduct, has opened an investigative subcommittee to examine whether Gonzales engaged in sexual misconduct with an employee in his office and whether he dispensed special favors or privileges. AP News reported that House ethics rules prohibit a lawmaker from engaging in a sexual relationship with any employee under their supervision.
That investigation hangs over a House GOP majority so thin it can barely afford distractions. Republicans hold a 217-to-214 edge, with one independent, Rep. Kevin Kiley of California, caucusing with the party. GOP leadership has reportedly been careful about pushing Gonzales to step down, wary of losing even one seat.
Gonzales has said he does not plan to resign. He did, however, drop his reelection bid after making a May 26 runoff against Herrera for the 23rd District seat. He remains in Congress, drawing his salary and casting votes while the ethics investigation proceeds.
The former political director who received the 2020 messages connected the two episodes directly. She told the Express-News she believed Gonzales pursued Santos-Aviles the same way he pursued her.
"He obviously pursued, pursued, pursued her like he did with me. I never took him serious[ly]... It wasn't until this poor girl died that I thought, 'No, this guy is pure evil.'"
That is one woman's characterization, not a legal finding. But the alleged pattern, hundreds of messages, persistent pressure despite repeated refusals, sexually explicit language directed at women working under or alongside him, now spans two separate staffers across at least four years. One walked away. The other did not survive.
Gonzales has framed his conduct as a single "lapse in judgment." The emerging record, if the texts are authentic, suggests something more sustained. His constituents in the 23rd District are left waiting for answers from a congressman who has gone largely silent on the matter publicly.
Fox News reported that Gonzales has also claimed he is being blackmailed, though he has not provided public evidence to support that assertion. The Ethics Committee's investigation remains open.
Conservatives rightly demand that elected officials meet a basic standard of personal conduct, not because politicians must be saints, but because the people who write the laws should not be the ones flouting the rules that govern their own offices. House ethics rules exist for a reason. The prohibition on sexual relationships with supervised staff is not a technicality. It exists to protect the people who show up to serve their country in low-profile jobs on Capitol Hill.
A woman is dead. An ethics investigation is open. Alleged text messages from two separate episodes, years apart, describe a congressman who treated female staffers as targets. And the man at the center of it all calls it a "lapse in judgment" and refuses to leave.
A lapse happens once. A pattern is a choice.
