Embattled Representative Tony Gonzales (R., Texas) ended his reelection campaign after admitting to having an affair with a staffer who later committed suicide.
Gonzales announced his decision late Thursday after House Republican leadership to urge him to withdraw from the competitive race due to the affair.
“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,” Gonzales said in a statement shared on social media.
For the time being, Gonzales remains a crucial vote for the razor-thin House Republican majority. On Tuesday, Gonzales advanced to a runoff against firearms enthusiast Brandon Herrera, a right-wing influencer known for producing YouTube content. Herrera outperformed Gonzales 43.3 percent to 41.7 percent, a poor showing for Gonzales in the GOP primary for Texas’s 23rd district.
“I appreciate Tony Gonzales for making the appropriate decision. I look forward to being the voice of TX23 that our district deserves. From the border, to oil theft, water rights, data centers, and many other issues. It’s an honor to be chosen and together we will make Texas proud,” Herrera said.
Herrera is now the strong favorite to win the general election in Texas’s 23rd district, a rural and majority Hispanic are that President Trump won by 15 points in the 2024 election.
Earlier this week, Gonzales admitted to having the affair for the first time after several weeks of intense scrutiny. The House Ethics Committee is investigating the matter after a separate House investigation concluded Gonzales likely violated House rules by having a sexual relationship with a subordinate.
“I made a mistake, and I had a lapse in judgment, and there was a lack of faith, and I take full responsibility for those actions,” Gonzales told conservative radio host Joe Pags in an interview Wednesday. “Since then, I’ve reconciled with my wife, Angel. I’ve asked God to forgive me, which he has, and my faith is as strong as ever.”
Regina Santos-Aviles, the woman Gonzales had the affair with, died in September 2025 after setting herself on fire outside her home. Her death has been ruled a suicide. An autopsy report found she was intoxicated when she lit herself on fire and died the following day. Santos-Aviles’s husband, Adrian Aviles, blamed Gonzales for the affair when he broke his silence about it in February.
Gonzales faced an avalanche of scrutiny last month because of newly revealed text messages from May 2024 showing he asked Santos-Aviles to send him an explicit photograph. She repeatedly pushed back against Gonzales’s advances in the series of texts. But in separate message to colleagues, she confessed to having the affair.
Representative Anna Paulina Luna (R., Fla.), a colleague of Gonzales, has moved to have him censured over the affair. It is unclear when there will be a vote on her push.