Texas lawmaker urged to resign over alleged affair with staffer
The Republican father of six is facing calls from within his own party to resign and end his re-election bid after details emerged about his alleged affair with an aide.
Republican Representative Tony Gonzales, who has been endorsed by President Donald Trump, has been asked to step down over affair claims.
Gonzales is facing a challenge from gun rights activist Brandon Herrera in a primary election next week.
Whoever becomes the party’s nominee is expected to win in November’s congressional election. The district, which runs along the US-Mexico border, is heavily Republican.
Gonzales has denied the affair, but some lawmakers are concerned about sexual text messages between him and married staffer Regina Santos-Aviles, who died by suicide in September.
Gonzales on Tuesday told CBS News, the BBC’s partner in the US, and reporters on Capitol Hill that he would not resign.
“I work every day for the people of Texas. There will be an opportunity for all the details and the facts to come out. What you’ve seen are not all the facts,” he said.
He had defended his record on Monday, posting on X that during his six years in Congress, “not a single formal complaint” has been lodged against his office.
House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson said the allegations against Gonzales are “very serious,” but the investigation must be completed.
According to the BBC, some of the most well-known Republicans in the House, including Colorado’s Lauren Boebert, though, have said he should resign immediately.
Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina has called the allegations against Gonzales “deeply disturbing” and an “abuse of power”.
She also announced on Tuesday that lawmakers have filed a resolution to preserve and publicly release records and reports from all investigations into members of Congress “for sexual harassment and unwelcome sexual advances”.
Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie, the lead Republican on the bill forcing the Justice Department to release its files about Jeffrey Epstein, and Representative Anna Paulina Luna on Tuesday joined the call for Gonzales to quit.
Democrats, as well, would like to see him leave, with Representative Teresa Leger Fernández, the chair of the Congressional Democratic Women’s Caucus, saying in a statement to Axios: “Rep. Tony Gonzales’s actions would result in a termination and investigation in any other workplace.”
According to CBS, in text messages from May 2024 Gonzales asked Santos-Aviles to send him a “sexy pic” and asked her sexually explicit questions.
Twice the aide, his Uvalde regional district director, told him he had gone “too far”.
The following month, her husband, Adrian Aviles, appeared to send a text from her phone to Gonzales and other staffers that said he had discovered “she’s been having an affair on me with your boss Tony Gonzales for some time now”.
Santos-Aviles died in September 2025 after setting herself on fire near her home in Uvalde, Texas. The medical examiner has ruled the death a suicide, according to CBS.
In an interview with CBS, a lawyer for Aviles said that Santos-Aviles’ mental health sharply declined following the end of her alleged relationship with the congressman.
“The deterioration of her mental state was exacerbated by the conduct Tony engaged in - the workplace harassment after the discovery of the affair,” said Bobby Barrera.
The BBC has contacted Gonzales’ office for comment.
Gonzales, a married father of six, has served in the US House of Representatives since January 2021.
He has previously denied having an affair, saying in November that the “rumors are completely untruthful”.
Gonzales defeated Herrera by a slim margin in the 2024 race.