Adrian Aviles sat in front of a Zoom camera in his lawyer's San Antonio office on Wednesday and said what he had been holding back for five months. His wife, Regina Santos-Aviles, a 35-year-old regional director for Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), had an affair with the congressman. And now Gonzales, Aviles says, won't even admit it.
"I said the truth would come to light when it's time, and the time is now," the 40-year-old told the San Antonio Express-News.
Santos-Aviles, a mother of one, died on September 14, 2025, after dousing herself in gasoline and setting herself on fire in the backyard of her Uvalde, Texas, home the night before. The Bexar County Medical Examiner ruled her death a suicide by self-immolation.
Aviles told the Express-News that "Tony abused his power" and "should have held himself to a higher standard as a congressional leader." Gonzales, 45, has denied having an affair. His Wednesday statement to the New York Post conspicuously declined to repeat that denial.
Aviles said he discovered the relationship in May 2024, when he spotted his wife texting the married congressman with six children. The messages he found were "very sexual in nature," he says, with Gonzales repeatedly requesting explicit photos. "I kind of looked over her shoulder, and I saw that she was texting Tony," Aviles said.
When he confronted her, she replied: "You're not going to like what you see."
The timing is notable.The day after Gonzales narrowly won a GOP primary runoff election against Brandon Herrera. Gonzales defeated Herrera 50.6%–49.4% in that runoff, a margin of just over 400 votes. Santos-Aviles had helped deliver the communities that kept Gonzales in office. Within days, according to her husband, she was being pushed out.
According to a former staffer, operations in Gonzales' two-person Uvalde regional office shifted after Aviles texted the staff about the affair. Gonzales and his district director canceled meetings with local organizations that had been arranged by Santos-Aviles and the former staffer. Neither he nor Santos-Aviles accompanied Gonzales on any Uvalde visits after that point, marking a significant change.
Aviles described the aftermath plainly: his wife was iced out, given a month off, and pushed toward the door.
When that happened, they black-sheeped her. They severed communications with her. They gave her a month off. They're essentially trying to push her out … and make her quit.
A former colleague put it more bluntly: "She went from the number one employee in the office to nothing."
The couple separated a few months after the discovery. The former staffer said Santos-Aviles' distress intensified in the months before her death and that she told him she went on antidepressants in the summer of 2025. Aviles said she had no prior history of mental health issues.
In August 2025, roughly one month before her death, she attempted suicide and police were called to her home. According to Aviles, they found "nothing of concern."
She cried wolf, he said. And no one caught her.
On the night of September 13, Santos-Aviles reached out to her husband, told him she loved him, and said she wanted her family back. She also sent a video to one of Aviles' friends, the contents of which he declined to detail other than to say it concerned him. He called his mother-in-law. By then it was too late.
Aviles does not believe his wife intended to die.
I don't think that it was an intentional act. I think it was a cry for help. It was a cry for help that turned into a tragedy.
That distinction matters. It doesn't lessen the devastation. But it underscores a question at the center of this story: who failed Regina Santos-Aviles when she needed help most?
For months, the congressman treated the affair allegations like political noise. He broke his silence in November during an on-stage interview at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin. Asked about "the circumstances that may have led to her death," Gonzales said the "rumors are completely untruthful." He added: "People throwing rocks at me, saying I'm doing nasty things — I totally get that. But the rumors are completely untruthful."
That was November. By Wednesday, the language changed.
In a statement, Gonzales would not comment on the allegations, saying he would not "engage in these personal smears and instead remain focused on helping President Trump secure the border and improve the lives of all Texans."
He praised Santos-Aviles' community work. He blamed his primary rival. He declined to answer questions about the alleged affair, but he has previously dismissed the allegations as untrue. What he did not do, on a day when a text message from the dead woman herself read "I had [an] affair with our boss and I'm fine," was deny it again.
He accused one of his primary opponents, Brandon Herrera, of "using a disgruntled former staffer to smear her memory and score political points." Gonzales' office also alleged that the ex-staffer who reported the texts has moved to Los Angeles to work for Democratic campaigns. The ex-staffer denied to the Express-News that he was paid by any of Gonzales' primary opponents.
Attacking the messenger is a strategy. It is not an answer.
The timing of all this is brutal for Gonzales, and he knows it. The election was upended on the first day of early voting Tuesday, when the San Antonio Express-News published its story. The San Antonio Express-News editorial board rescinded its endorsement of Gonzales.
Calls to resign were echoed by state Rep. Wes Virdell, R-Brady, whose state House district overlaps with Gonzales' congressional district. "If this is true, and it does appear credible, Tony should step down," Virdell, who has endorsed Herrera, posted on X.
Jonathan Saenz, president of the conservative group Texas Values, said Gonzales should resign immediately if the affair report is true.
Following the Express-News report, Republican congressional candidate Brandon Herrera issued a statement calling on Gonzales to resign. "Tony Gonzales must resign," Herrera said. "He not only broke House ethics rules by having an adulterous affair with a member of his congressional staff and by using taxpayer money to fund the affair, but he also broke trust with the public by insisting that the initial reporting of the affair was false."
Under the House Code of Official Conduct, relationships between members of Congress and their staff are prohibited. Breaching these rules could spark an investigation by the House Ethics Committee.
Of 422 likely Republican primary voters surveyed in a December poll, 29% said they would vote for Gonzales, while Herrera polled at 33%. In a head-to-head scenario, 43% backed Herrera compared to 34% for Gonzales. That was before this week's revelations. Gonzales has the backing of Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and numerous law enforcement associations, but the White House declined to comment on the report.
There is a familiar pattern in Washington when scandal arrives: praise the victim, blame the opponent, and pivot to policy. Gonzales executed all three in a single statement. He called Santos-Aviles "a kind soul." He pointed at Herrera. He invoked the border.
What he did not do is reckon with the accusation itself. A 35-year-old woman who served 11 counties in his district, who by every account was exceptional at her job, spiraled into depression after the affair was exposed and her boss allegedly cut her off. She started antidepressants. She attempted suicide once. She succeeded the second time. She had worked for Gonzales from November 2021 until her death.
Adrian Aviles, who lost his wife and watched his 8-year-old son lose his mother, said he came forward because he could no longer stand the denials.
He talks with two tongues. The Bible says to stay away from people who talk with two tongues.
Gonzales "pushes family values and Christian morals," Aviles said, while "denying the fact that he's ruined somebody's life."
Voters in Texas' 23rd Congressional District are casting ballots right now. They have a right to know whether the man asking for their trust again abused his authority over a subordinate, lied about it publicly, and then blamed everyone else when the evidence surfaced. Character is not a side issue in a primary. It is the issue.
A woman is dead. Her husband is talking. And the congressman who employed her still won't say her name and the truth in the same sentence.
