U.S. Tony Gonzales (left) faces a primary challenge from Brandon Herrera, a politically inexperienced YouTube influencer.
U.S. Tony Gonzales (left) faces a primary challenge from Brandon Herrera, a YouTube influencer who’s never held office before. Credit: Courtesy Photos

U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales’ top Republican primary rival blasted him as a “sexual predator” over the weekend and ramped up calls for the South Texas congressman’s resignation in light of new text messages related to his alleged affair.

“I have now seen some of the text messages between Tony Gonzales and his late aide, Regina Santos-Aviles,” candidate Brandon Herrera, a YouTube influencer known to fans as the “AK Guy,” tweeted Sunday. “It is now clear to me Tony Gonzales is a sexual predator, who abused his position of power and wrecked a family. I also know this is not the only case. He must resign.”

Gonzales is locked in a competitive primary to represent Texas’ 23rd Congressional district, which stretches from San Antonio to El Paso. The Trump-backed congressman narrowly beat Herrera, a politically inexperienced online gun influencer, when two faced off in the 2024 GOP primary.

Herrera’s tweet may reference text messages reported on by the Express-News that allegedly show Gonzales, a married father of six, urged Santos-Avile — then his Uvalde regional district office director — to share her favorite sexual position and send risqué photos.

“Send me a sexy pic,” Gonzales wrote around midnight May 9, 2024, the daily reports.

Santos-Aviles pushed back against the Congressman, texting that she’d had a long week, according the Express-News. “You don’t really want a hot picture of me,” she said.

“Yes I do,” Gonzales reportedly responded. “Hurry.”

Herrera’s tweet and the Express-News article, which ran Monday, are the latest twists in the story about Santos-Aviles, who took her own life in September by setting herself on fire, according to the Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Bobby Barrera, an attorney representing Santos-Aviles’ husband, told the daily that his client’s discovery of the alleged affair, combined with Santos-Aviles being ostracized by the congressman’s office, led to her emotional decline and suicide.

However, a separate Monday report by the Express-News further complicates the matter. That article asserts that Santos-Aviles told first responders who found her after she’d set herself ablaze that she’d done so because she discovered her then-estranged husband was romantically involved with her best friend.

On Friday, Punchbowl News reported that the Office of Congressional Conduct last November opened an ethics investigation into Gonzales’s purported affair.

The U.S. House’s Code of Conduct states a member “may not engage in a sexual relationship with any employee of the House who works under the supervision of the member.”

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Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...