Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) reportedly pursued a sexual relationship with yet another former staff member, according to newly released text messages first reported by the San Antonio Express-News. The texts show Gonzales sent vulgar messages to his campaign's political director in 2020, reportedly asking her over a dozen times for nude photos and asking "what kind of panties" she wore.
This is the second staffer Gonzales is now linked to. He dropped his reelection bid in March after admitting to an affair with Regina Santos-Aviles, a married staffer who later died by suicide. The House Committee on Ethics is currently investigating him over that relationship.
Gonzales, who is married with six children, was first elected to Congress in 2020, the same year the text messages were sent.
According to the Washington Examiner, Gonzales attempted to pursue a sexual relationship with his former political director over multiple weeks. The two met at her home twice for work purposes. In the text messages attributed to Gonzales, the congressman wrote "squeeze my balls" and, in what appears to be a reference to her rejections, "47 nos is about my limit."
The former political director connected the pattern immediately. Speaking about Santos-Aviles, she said:
"He obviously pursued, pursued, pursued her like he did with me."
She went further, describing the moment Santos-Aviles's death changed her understanding of who Gonzales is:
"I never took him serious… It wasn't until this poor girl died that I thought, 'No, this guy is pure evil.'"
Those are not the words of someone describing a one-time lapse. They describe a pattern.
When Gonzales first addressed the Santos-Aviles affair during a podcast interview in March, he framed it this way:
"I made a mistake, and I had a lapse in judgment."
He added that he takes "full responsibility for those actions." On March 5, he released a statement announcing his decision to step aside:
"After deep reflection and with the support of my loving family, I have decided not to seek re-election while serving out the rest of this Congress with the same commitment I've always had to my district."
The language is carefully constructed. "A mistake." "A lapse." Singular. The newly released texts suggest something quite different: a congressman who serially pursued subordinates, leveraging the power dynamic of employer and employee to make vulgar advances over a period of weeks, absorbing rejection after rejection without stopping.
"A lapse in judgment" covers a lot of ground when it has to stretch across two staffers and dozens of unwanted messages.
When Gonzales forfeited his bid for a fourth term, Brandon Herrera, who had been in a runoff with Gonzales, automatically became the Republican nominee for Texas's 23rd Congressional District. That transition is now complete, and the district moves forward without the baggage Gonzales accumulated.
Conservatives should be clear-eyed about this. The right gains nothing from circling the wagons around a man whose conduct betrayed his family, his staff, and the voters who trusted him with office. The Ethics investigation continues. The facts, so far, speak plainly enough.
The policy implications and political fallout will sort themselves out. TX-23 will have a new representative. The Ethics Committee will issue its findings. Gonzales will serve out his term and leave.
But Regina Santos-Aviles is dead. A former political director carries the memory of a boss who wouldn't take no for an answer. These are real people whose lives were bent and broken by a man who treated the power of his office as a personal entitlement.
Forty-seven nos. He kept count.
