Texas Republican Congressman Tony Gonzales publicly admitted Wednesday that he engaged in an extramarital affair with a former staffer who later died by suicide in September 2025.
Gonzales made the confession during an appearance on “The Joe Pags Show,” one day after Tuesday’s Republican House primary results were tallied in Texas’ 23rd Congressional District.
“I made a mistake, and I had a lapse in judgment,” Gonzales said during the interview.
“And there was a lack of faith,” the three-term congressman continued. “And I take full responsibility for those actions.”
Gonzales, 45, stated that he has since reconciled with his wife following the May 2024 affair with his former staffer, Regina Ann Santos-Aviles, a married mother who served as the regional director of his Uvalde office.
“I’ve asked God to forgive me, which he has,” Gonzales said.
“When you make mistakes like this, it’s never easy. It humbles you,” he added.
Santos-Aviles, 35, died in September 2025 after setting herself on fire in the backyard of her Uvalde home.
A county medical examiner ruled that she died of self-immolation and listed her manner of death as suicide.
On September 13, 2025, Uvalde police responded to Santos-Aviles’ home, where officers discovered she had poured gasoline on herself and lit herself on fire.
She died the following day at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, according to her family, Resist the Mainstream previously reported.
Santos-Aviles’ husband, Adrian Aviles, told the San Antonio Express-News that he discovered the affair in 2024 and reported it to his wife’s coworkers.
The two eventually separated. Aviles said that before her death, his wife was ostracized in the workplace.
According to texts obtained by CBS News, Gonzales asked Santos-Aviles for a “sexy pic” in May 2024. Santos-Aviles said she didn’t like taking photos of herself, and the congressman then asked Santos-Aviles what her “favorite position” was.
The aide responded: “This is going too far boss.”
CBS reported that after another exchange, Santos-Aviles said again: “This is too far, Tony.”
The story drew widespread attention on February 17, 2026, the eve of early voting, when the San Antonio Express-News reported that Santos-Aviles had acknowledged the affair in a text message.
Two sources familiar with the investigation told NBC News that the Office of Congressional Conduct finished a probe into the alleged affair, but House rules prevented it from transmitting a report to the House Ethics Committee right before an election.
The New York Post reported that the House Ethics Committee is now investigating Gonzales over claims that he “engaged in sexual misconduct” with a staffer and “discriminated unfairly” by “dispensing special favors or privileges.”
Gonzales, who has said he will not step down, entered the nation’s first major primary of 2026 under pressure from fellow House Republicans after published reports last month alleged explicit text messages between him and the former staffer.
Neither candidate secured more than 50% of the vote in the four-way primary election, setting up a May 26 runoff election.
President Donald Trump endorsed Gonzales in December, and last week, Gonzales was among the Texas Republicans in attendance for Trump’s visit along the Texas coast.
