Tony Gonzales appeared to have affair allegations on his mind in the dead of the night.
The married Texas Republican, 45, blasted what he described as “coordinated political attacks” against him in an X post published at 2:46 a.m. CT on Sunday, after an explosive report accused him of having an affair with a staffer who later set herself on fire.
“During my six years in Congress not a single formal complaint has been levied against my office,” he wrote. “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.”
Last week, the San Antonio-Express News reported that Gonzales allegedly had an affair in 2024 with Regina Santos-Aviles, his regional district director in Uvalde. The report cited a text message that Aviles sent to a fellow staffer that read, “I had [an] affair with our boss.” Rumors of the affair had been circulating, but the text from Aviles had not been previously reported.
A former Gonzales staffer told the outlet that the affair became known to some staff members during the 2024 election cycle. The staffer also said Aviles fell into depression after her husband, Adrian, discovered the affair and Gonzales cut her off. She set herself on fire outside her Uvalde home in September last year, and the Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office later ruled her death a suicide by self-immolation.
Gonzales is married with six kids, while Aviles had been separated at the time of her death but was co-parenting an eight-year-old with Adrian.
In a statement to the Daily Mail last month, a spokesperson for Gonzales accused “political bottom feeders” of trying to “distort the circumstances around her passing.” Bobby Barrera, an attorney for Aviles’ widower, described the affair to CBS News as an “open, shielded secret” that was kept under wraps at Gonzales’ request.
The controversy has rocked Gonzales’ reelection campaign in Texas’s 23rd congressional district, with the primary scheduled for March 3. NBC News reported that the Office of Congressional Conduct has already concluded an investigation into the alleged affair, but the report cannot be transmitted to the House Ethics Committee within a two-month window before an election involving a member of Congress in the probe.
Gonzales has pinned the new reporting on his alleged affair on his top opponent, Brandon Herrera, who accused him of being guilty and called for his resignation.
“Ms. Santos-Aviles was a kind soul who devoted her life to making the community a better place,” Gonzales said in a statement last week.
“It’s shameful that Brandon Herrera is using a disgruntled former staffer to smear her memory and score political points, conveniently pushing this out the very day early voting started,” he continued. “I am not going to engage in these personal smears and instead will remain focused on helping President Trump secure the border and improve the lives of all Texans.”
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