Embattled Texas GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales announced late Thursday that he would drop his reelection bid after House Republican leaders called on him to do so earlier in the day.
Mr. Gonzales, who did not participate in House votes on Thursday, posted a statement to social media shortly after 11 p.m. saying he decided to end his campaign “after deep reflection and with the support of my loving family.”
It was quite the turnabout from just 24 hours prior, when he declared he was the only candidate who could keep the seat in GOP hands, despite his confession that he had an affair with an aide in 2024.
Mr. Gonzales, a married father of six, said his affair with Regina Santos-Aviles, who worked in his congressional office and was also married, was a “mistake,” and he has since reconciled with his wife and asked God to forgive him.
Those comments came in an interview he said he set up with talk show host Joe Pags to come clean after previously denying an intimate relationship with Santos-Aviles, who died by self-immolation the year after the affair.
The congressman used the interview to push back on some of the accusations that had been made against him, saying he had nothing to do with Santos-Aviles’ suicide and that a pay boost he gave her in 2024 was part of a staff-wide, performance-based raise cycle and preceded the start of the affair.
The House Ethics Committee had launched an investigation into the affair, a violation of the chamber’s code of conduct, before Mr. Gonzales confessed. The investigation, which was also set to look into the allegations that the pay raise was a special favor, is expected to continue.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Majority Whip Tom Emmer and Republican Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain urged the Ethics Committee to act “expeditiously” in their joint statement, saying they asked Mr. Gonzales to end his reelection race.
Mr. Gonzales fulfilling that request leaves Brandon Herrera, a pro-gun YouTube influencer whom he narrowly beat last cycle, as the Republican nominee for the seat.
The two were set to face off in a May runoff after neither secured an outright majority of votes cast in Texas’ primary election on Tuesday. Mr. Gonzales trailed Mr. Herrera by less than 1,000 votes.
Mr. Herrera did not immediately react to Mr. Gonzales’ decision to drop out but had thanked House GOP leaders earlier in the day for holding the incumbent “for actions that have tarnished the office.”
“I’m looking forward to representing the district the way the people of West Texas have always deserved,” he said.
The allegations of Mr. Gonzales’ affair had been quietly circulating since Santos-Aviles died last September, but blew up last week after sexually explicit text messages he sent her were publicly released.
The aide’s widower, Adrian Aviles, and his lawyer helped drum up the publicity in what Mr. Gonzales described as a coordinated political attack against him after a failed attempt to shake him down for $300,000.
Mr. Herrera launched a GoFundMe campaign to help Mr. Aviles and his 8-year-old son that has raised more than $60,000.
“Let’s step up as a community and help support the family where Tony Gonzales failed to, and help a single father raise young Axel and set him up for the future,” he said on the campaign’s webpage.
Katarina Flicker, spokesperson for the House Majority PAC, the Democratic leadership-aligned outside funding operation, attacked Mr. Herrera as “an antisemitic YouTuber whose record is far outside the mainstream.”
“Instead of condemning that extremism, Republican leadership is working to elect him to Congress,” she said. “It’s a disgrace, and it should alarm voters across the political spectrum. HMP will do whatever it takes to make sure Herrera never sets foot in the U.S. House of Representatives.”
