{"id":50143,"date":"2026-04-14T04:42:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T04:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=50143"},"modified":"2026-04-14T04:42:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T04:42:17","slug":"rep-tony-gonzales-to-retire-from-congress-after-affair-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=50143","title":{"rendered":"Rep. Tony Gonzales to Retire from Congress After Affair Scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"subheading\">Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) confirmed that he would be filing to retire from Congress after he admitted to having an affair with a former aide who committed suicide last year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is a season for everything and God has a plan for us all,\u201d Gonzales <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RepTonyGonzales\/status\/2043819211865129159\">wrote<\/a> in a post on X. \u201cWhen Congress returns tomorrow, I will file my retirement from office. It has been my privilege to serve the great people of Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gonzales\u2019s announcement comes after he previously <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=tP9nYoGFx4w\">confirmed<\/a> in March, during a radio interview on <em>The Joe Pags Show<\/em>, that he had \u201cmade a mistake\u201d and that he took \u201cfull responsibility for those actions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI made a mistake,\u201d Gonzales said. \u201cI had a lapse in judgment, and there was a lack of faith. I take full responsibility for those actions. Since then, I\u2019ve reconciled with my wife, Angel. I\u2019ve asked God to forgive me, which he has, and my faith is as strong as ever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/t\/assets\/html\/tweet-5.html#2043819211865129159\" data-btlnk=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RepTonyGonzales\/status\/2043819211865129159\" class=\"bnn-if-tweet\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"260\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Gonzales\u2019s confirmation of his affair came after a former unnamed staffer for Gonzales <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2026\/02\/17\/report-aide-to-republican-rep-tony-gonzales-admitted-to-affair-with-boss-before-suicide\/\">told<\/a> the <em>San Antonio Express-News<\/em> that Regina Ann Santos-Aviles, who had been Gonzales\u2019s \u201cregional district director,\u201d admitted to having an affair with the congressman in 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"a9d-pre\">In September 2025, Santos-Aviles died after she \u201cpoured gasoline over herself and was engulfed in flames\u201d:<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a9d\"\/>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a9d\"\/>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"\/>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The former staffer said the relationship became known to some staff members during the 2024 election cycle. He said Gonzales stayed at the ex-staffer\u2019s family\u2019s rental cabin on Concan, near Uvalde, during the primary campaign, and that on two occasions in May 2024, Gonzales and Santos-Aviles went there together and stayed for one to two hours.<\/p>\n<p>He said Santos-Aviles called him crying and distraught two weeks later to say her husband, Adrian Aviles, had discovered text messages that revealed her relationship with Gonzales. She told the staffer they had been having an affair. It was May 29, the day after Gonzales narrowly won a GOP primary runoff election against Brandon Herrera. He said Aviles later texted a group of Gonzales\u2019 legislative district staffers to expose the relationship.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The House Ethics Committee <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2026\/03\/04\/house-ethics-committee-establishes-investigative-subcommittee-into-rep-tony-gonzales-over-allegations-involving-staffer-who-later-died\/\">announced<\/a> in March that it was investigating Gonzales over reports of his affair with his former aide, who died after setting herself ablaze.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn accordance with House Rule XI, clause 3, and Committee Rule 10(a)(2), the Committee voted to establish an Investigative Subcommittee,\u201d the statement said. \u201cPursuant to the Committee\u2019s action, at this time, the Investigative Subcommittee shall have jurisdiction to determine whether Representative Tony Gonzales violated the Code of Official Conduct or any law, rule, regulation, or other applicable standard of conduct in the performance of his duties or the discharge of his responsibilities, with respect to allegations that he may have: (1) engaged in sexual misconduct towards an individual employed in his congressional office; and\/or (2) discriminated unfairly by dispensing special favors or privileges.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gonzales\u2019s announcement comes after Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) announced that he would be <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RepSwalwell\/status\/2043802702971359521\">resigning<\/a> from Congress after he was accused of sexually assaulting a former staffer.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2026\/04\/13\/rep-tony-gonzales-retire-congress-admitting-affair-scandal\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) confirmed that he would be filing to retire from Congress after he admitted to having an affair with a former aide who&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-north-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/50144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}