Jim: Rep. Tony Gonzales Refuses to Resign After Texts Tie Him to Staffer’s Death
Rep. Tony Gonzales said he will not resign amid a growing furore over allegations that he exchanged sexually explicit text messages with a senior staffer who later died by suicide, and jim appears in online reference points as the campaign braces for a March primary. The congressman’s refusal comes as Republican colleagues demand answers and new details from police and family accounts have emerged.
Gonzales says he won’t step down
Gonzales told reporters on Tuesday that he was not going to resign and that "there will be an opportunity for all the details and facts to come out. What you’ve seen is not all the facts. And there will be ample time for all of that to come out. " He has denied an affair, said on social media that he is being blackmailed, and called the allegations a political smear. He has not addressed newly released text messages in which he appeared to ask for intimate photos and to discuss sex acts.
Texts allege a late-night request: “Send me a sexy pic”
Text messages obtained last week include an exchange in which Gonzales allegedly sent a message at 12. 15am on 9 May that said: "Send me a sexy pic. " Another account cites the same night as just after midnight on May 9, 2024, in which Gonzales begged Regina Santos-Aviles to send a "sexy pic, " persisted when she pushed back and said he was "just such a visual person. " The messages also allegedly show the congressman asking about favorite sex positions and fantasizing about having sex with the staffer. The former staffer wrote to a colleague that she had an affair with the married lawmaker, and she is identified in the available material as Regina Ann Santos-Aviles, 35.
Staffer’s death and what officers were told
Santos-Aviles, who served as Gonzales’s district director in Uvalde, died in September 2025 after lighting herself on fire. A police report provided by Uvalde officials shows Santos-Aviles told responding officers that she set herself on fire because her husband was romantically involved with her best friend. The couple had been estranged for several months after what a friend described as "Regina’s supposed affair, " and Santos-Aviles died the next day at a hospital in San Antonio. She and her husband, Adrian Aviles, shared an 8-year-old son.
Republican pressure and internal House moves
Several House Republicans publicly demanded Gonzales step down: Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Anna Paulina Luna of Florida and Nancy Mace of South Carolina joined others pressing for his resignation. Texas Republicans Brandon Gill and Chip Roy had called for Gonzales to resign earlier. Gill said "America deserves better, " endorsed Gonzales’s main opponent and added, "Tony should drop out of the race. " Mace has introduced a resolution to force the House ethics committee to publicly release wider reports and records of allegations of sexual harassment against members of Congress. House Speaker Mike Johnson said he would speak to Gonzales, called the accusations "must be taken seriously" and urged that investigations be allowed to play out, saying in part that if allegations alone were a litmus many members might have to resign or be removed.
Campaign stakes ahead of the March primary
Gonzales, a three-term congressman and a father-of-six, is running for reelection and faces a Republican primary on 3 March that could cost him his seat. His chief rival is Brandon Herrera, described in different accounts as a gun manufacturer and gun rights influencer and elsewhere as a gun rights activist and YouTuber; Herrera nearly unseated Gonzales in 2024. Herrera has run ads and social posts accusing Gonzales of a "taxpayer funded affair with a married staffer, which led to her death by self-immolation, " has called for Gonzales to step down and has rebuffed the congressman’s statements. Gonzales said in November that rumors of an affair were "completely untruthful, " and has accused Adrian Aviles of trying to blackmail him while blaming Herrera for politicizing the matter.
A family member provided text messages to the family and those messages were shared with journalists as part of the record now circulating in the campaign and on Capitol Hill. Local investigators provided the police report that contains the account of Santos-Aviles to reporters in a Feb. 23, 2026 article that has driven recent public scrutiny.
What happens next is the 3 March primary and further inquiries into the texts and the officer report; Gonzales is campaigning for reelection while Republican colleagues press for answers and members of Congress seek release of broader ethics records.
