A text message from the late Regina Santos-Aviles, a 35-year-old regional director in Rep. Tony Gonzales’ Texas district office, shows her telling a fellow staffer that she had an affair with the congressman.
The San Antonio Express-News reported it reviewed a screenshot of a text message from Santos-Aviles in which she acknowledged having an “affair with our boss,” The New York Post reported.
The newspaper verified that the message, timestamped April 28, 2025, originated from her phone number. Santos-Aviles died Sept. 14, 2025, after setting herself on fire in her backyard in Uvalde.
Emergency crews had responded to reports of a disturbance the night before. The Bexar County Medical Examiner ruled her death a suicide by self-immolation. Gonzales, a Texas Republican seeking a fourth House term, has denied the affair.
In a statement, he said he is “not going to engage in these personal smears and instead will remain focused on helping President Trump secure the border and improve the lives of all Texans.”
The report surfaced on the first day of early voting for the March 3 GOP primary in Texas’s 23rd Congressional District.
A former staffer in Gonzales’ district office said Santos-Aviles told him in 2024 that they had an affair and that she spiraled into depression after her husband discovered the relationship and Gonzales cut off contact.
According to the former staffer, Santos-Aviles called him on May 29, the day after Gonzales narrowly won a GOP primary runoff election against Brandon Herrera, and said her husband, Adrian Aviles, had found text messages revealing the relationship.
The former staffer claimed that internal knowledge of the relationship led to Santos-Aviles’ marginalization at work.
He said she no longer accompanied Gonzales on Uvalde visits and meetings she had arranged were canceled.
“She went from the number one employee in the office to nothing,” the staffer said.
He said she began taking antidepressants in the summer of 2025 and alleged police were called to her home in August 2025 following an alleged suicide attempt.
The Express-News reported it did not independently confirm that incident. Gonzales has not directly addressed the text message.
In a statement to the New York Post, he described Santos-Aviles as “a kind soul who devoted her life to making the community a better place,” citing her work on school safety, healthcare, and rural water issues.
He also criticized his primary opponent, Brandon Herrera.
“It’s shameful that Brandon Herrera is using a disgruntled former staffer to smear her memory and score political points, conveniently pushing this out the very day early voting started,” Gonzales said.
At the Texas Tribune Festival in November, Gonzales said, “People throwing rocks at me, saying I’m doing nasty things — I totally get that. But the rumors are completely untruthful.”
The unnamed former staffer who provided the text message resigned last month, moved to Los Angeles, and now works for two local Democratic campaigns.
He told reporters he had not been paid or promised compensation by any of Gonzales’ primary opponents.
According to the New York Post, the former staffer, 24, considered going public in November but feared losing his job.
He said he stopped coming to work for months after Santos-Aviles’ death and felt he could no longer “sell Gonzales’ message and his ideals.”
Adrian Aviles’ attorney told the newspaper he did not believe Santos-Aviles’ suicide had anything to do with the alleged affair.
The San Antonio Express-News editorial board announced it was withdrawing its endorsement of Gonzales ahead of the March 3 primary.
Following the report, Herrera called on Gonzales to resign.
Herrera said Gonzales “not only broke House ethics rules by having an adulterous affair with a member of his congressional staff and by using taxpayer money to fund the affair, but he also broke trust with the public by insisting that the initial reporting of the affair was false.”
