by Frank Holmes, reporter
Sometimes tragedies, disasters, and betrayals come out of nowhere. But most of the time, there were signs the guilty tried to make sure never saw the light of day. And one sex scandal just exploded into public view.
The scandal again involves Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, who demanded a staffer send him risque photos and meet him for sex—and got more intense when she refused.
Bayliss Wagner of the San Antonio Express-News exclusively obtained “hundreds” of jaw-dropping texts Gonzales had sent to his staffer in June 2020.
“What kind of panties do you wear?” he asked her.
He then demanded she send him “sexy pics,” over and over.
During the span of three days, the Republican badgered his staffer to send him naked photosch more than a dozen times.
“47 nos is about my limit,” he said. “I know what I want and won’t stop until I get it.”
Each time, she refused or sent a non-sexual photo with most of her body covered.
The texts seemed puzzling to the campaign worker, who volunteered for Gonzales’ first Republican congressional primary in April 2020 and was elevated to the position of political director that June.
Gonzales decided to celebrate his victory over Raul Reyes in the Republican run-off election on July 15, 2020, (by seven votes) by propositioning her.
He later said he was “still in shock…You turned me down.”
Eventually, she had her limit and pushed back, “This behavior needs to stop.”
But instead of stopping, Gonzales got more intense. He detailed the sexual positions he wanted to try with her, insisting she would have to “squeeze my balls.”
He insisted on having two in-person meetings at her place, but she says nothing happened. After leaving one meeting, Gonzales asked the woman if he could return, and added, “If I come over though your panties are coming off.”
The staffer quit shortly after he took office in January 2021, and Gonzales got nothing physical from her.
“We didn’t so much as touch,” the former staffer told Wagner.
With the latest revelation, Gonzales finds himself at the center of not one but two of the most explosive sex scandals in the storied history of the Lone Star State.
EXCLUSIVE: Regina Santos-Aviles wasn't the first staffer that Rep. Tony Gonzales asked for nude photos & sex.
He sought a sexual relationship with his congressional campaign's political director in 2020— 4 years before his affair with Santos-Aviles.
— Bayliss Wagner (@baylisswagner) April 6, 2026
The Horn told you last fall that Gonzales’ former regional district director, 35-year-old Regina Santos-Aviles, set herself on fire in September after the two married parties had an affair.
Her death is what caused the former political director to come forward.
“He obviously pursued, pursued, pursued her like he did with me,” the director told the Express-News. “It wasn’t until this poor girl died that I thought, ‘No, this guy is pure evil.’”
Gonzales tried to keep hold of his congressional seat and chalked the fiery affair up to a “lapse of judgment” on the March 4 episode of The Joe Pags Show. But the now-revealed texts seem to shatter any illusion of innocence.
The House Ethics Committee has opened an investigation into the Texas Republican, and more private lawsuits could be forthcoming, too.
“He’s made admissions to the two causes of action specifically covered under the Congressional Accountability Act,” said Bobby Barrera, the lawyer for the deceased staffer’s husband, Adrian Aviles.
Adrian “is ready to close the books and move on,” said Barrera. But he’s considering suing Gonzales for committing workplace harassment.
Gonzales—who is married with six kids—dropped out of his re-election race last month, ceding the Republican congressional primary to the more conservative Brandon Herrera instead of participating in the May runoff election. Herrera will fight it out in November against Democrat Katy Padilla Stout.
It’s hardly surprising, since Gonzales was too far to the Left to represent deep-red Texas.
He’s barely rated above average by Gun Owners of America and the immigration control group NumbersUSA, even though he represents the 23rd congressional district, which runs along the U.S.-Mexico border from El Paso to San Antonio, and has said America had a four-year “border crisis.”
He should have protected his constituents’ rights and safety, but it looks like he had his mind on other things.
Gonzales will stay in Congress until next January, nine months from now. But congresswomen know a lot can happen in nine months, and they think it’s far too long for Gonzales to stay in office.
“I’d vote to expel him,” said conservative Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., who said she would also vote to kick out corrupt Democratic Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick.
NO means NO.
I’d vote to expel both him and Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick.
Both need to go. https://t.co/9PqrbuEfuG
— Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (@RepLuna) April 6, 2026
Others agreed.
“Why are predators protected and always allowed to stay in power?” asked Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., who’s running for governor of South Carolina. “Last month, we forced a vote to publicly release Congressional sexual harassment records. 357 members from both parties killed it. They chose the cover-up over the victims.”
But experts say he won’t be playing an active role in shaping legislation or taking any significant action in the House before he returns to the private sector.
“For lack of a better term, he’s going to be furniture,” University of Texas at San Antonio Chair of Political Science Jon Taylor told local media.
It’s not clear how Tony Gonzales will stroke his own ego or find women to harass outside Congress, especially with a reputation as an infamous womanizer whose trysts sometimes end in death.
If nothing else, the immoral congressman may go down in scientific history for proving it’s possible to belong to two different species at the same time: Tony Gonzales is both a RINO and a pig.