
At least five of South Texas U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales’ Republican colleagues in the U.S. House are calling on him to step down and end his reelection campaign over news reports he had an affair with a staffer who later committed suicide.
U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert was the first, Monday tweeting on Monday, “@RepTonyGonzales, RESIGN!”
Since then, Republican U.S. Reps. Nancy Mace of South Carolina; Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, Brandon Gill of Texas and Thomas Massie of Kentucky have joined the chorus.
The calls for Gonzales’ resignation come after the Express-News reported on the married lawmaker’s alleged affair with staffer Regina Santos-Aviles. The paper followed up with another story that included text messages in which the Santos-Aviles, also married, purportedly told Gonzales his requests for sexy photos and dirty talk went “too far.”
“Regina Santos-Aviles told him he was going too far. He did not care. He kept going,” Mace said in a statement. “She is gone now. Her son is growing up without his mother. And Tony Gonzales is campaigning like nothing happened.”
The congresswoman continued: “Tony Gonzales should resign immediately and be held fully accountable for what he’s done. She and her family deserved better. And Texans deserve a congressman who does not prey on women.”
“America deserves better,” Gill said on social media platform X. “Tony should drop out of the race.”
Even so, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, hasn’t yet joined the chorus. In comments to NBC, Johnson said he spoke to Gonzales and told him to address the reports “in an appropriate way with his constituents.”
“It’s too early for anybody to prejudge any of that, but we’ll see how it develops,” said Johnson, who faces the likelihood that Republicans will lose their razor-thin House majority in the midterms.
Gonzales, whose 23rd District includes the western edge of San Antonio and most of the U.S.-Mexico border, faces a tight primary against a pro-gun YouTube influencer Brandon Herrera, who forced him into a 2024 runoff.
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