Text messages obtained by the Daily Mail show a sexually explicit late-night exchange between Rep. Tony Gonzales and Regina Aviles, the director of his regional district office in Uvalde, from May 2024. The messages, sent around 12:15 a.m. and continuing until 1 a.m., include Gonzales asking Aviles to send him a "sexy pic," pressing her about sexual positions, and sending a one-word message too vulgar to print here.
Sixteen months after that exchange, Aviles was dead. The 35-year-old mother of an eight-year-old boy killed herself in September 2025 by dousing herself in gasoline and setting herself on fire in her backyard.
Gonzales, a father of six now seeking a fourth House term, denied the relationship in November 2025. Early voting in his closely contested primary is already underway, with Election Day set for March 3.
The exchange paints a picture that is difficult to square with Gonzales's blanket denial, according to the Daily Mail. In the messages, the congressman wrote "Send me a sexy pic," followed by "Hurry," and then explained himself: "I'm just such a visual person." When Aviles responded that "you don't really want a hot picture of me," Gonzales replied, "Yes, I do."
Aviles pushed back at points. "No, I just don't like taking pictures of myself," she wrote. Twice, she warned him he was going "too far." At one point, she asked him directly:
"Please tell me you didn't just hire me because I was hot."
Further texts obtained by the San Antonio Express-News reportedly show Aviles arranged to meet Gonzales two days later while he campaigned in the Uvalde area. In those messages, Gonzales wrote that the meeting "will be lots of fun" and referenced "at check-in time."
Former staffers told the Daily Mail anonymously, citing fear of retaliation, that the romantic relationship allegedly began in 2022.
The alleged affair unraveled in June 2024, when Aviles's husband, Adrian, sent a group text to Gonzales's staffers that left nothing to the imagination:
"Just a heads up this is Adriana Aviles, Reginas soon to be ex husband I just wanted to inform all of you that we will be getting a divorced after my discovery of text messages and pictures that she's been having an affair on me with your boss Tony Gonzales for some time now, Feel free to reach out if you want more of an explanation."
The grammar was rough. The message was not ambiguous.
After the exposure, Adrian Aviles moved out with their son. According to the ex-husband, Gonzales did not fire Aviles from her position. Instead, she was reportedly given a paid month off work. Adrian Aviles later revealed that she was "spiraling." She reportedly suffered from worsening depression in the months that followed.
By September 2025, she was gone.
The Daily Mail first reported on the relationship in October 2025, weeks after Aviles's death. When asked in November 2025, Gonzales offered this response:
"The rumors are completely untruthful. I am generally untrusting of these outlets."
He has since accused Adrian Aviles of trying to blackmail him. The Daily Mail noted that Gonzales regularly granted interviews to the publication until they began reporting on his relationship with Aviles. Representatives for Gonzales did not immediately respond to the outlet's latest request for comment.
The relationship may have been in breach of U.S. House ethics rules that bar romantic relations with staff members. According to Adrian Aviles, the congressman has been under federal investigation over the alleged affair since last year, though no agency has been named and no charges have been filed.
Meanwhile, Adrian Aviles reportedly tried to negotiate a confidential settlement with the congressman over the affair and his ex-wife's death before going public.
Political scandals have a rhythm to them. Texts leak. Denial issue. Opponents pounce. News cycles move. The mechanics are familiar enough to become numbing.
This one resists that treatment.
A woman is dead. An eight-year-old boy no longer has a mother. Whatever the full truth of the relationship between Gonzales and Aviles, the human wreckage is not abstract. It is a backyard in Uvalde, a container of gasoline, and a family broken apart.
Conservatives rightly hold that personal character matters in public officials. That principle cannot be seasonal, applied to political opponents, and suspended for allies. If the facts bear out what the texts strongly suggest, voters in Texas's 23rd District deserve to weigh that information before March 3.
Gonzales calls the reporting untruthful. The texts call that denial into serious question. Voters will have to decide which version they believe, and they won't have long to make up their minds.
Early voting has been underway since February 17.
