House Speaker Mike Johnson and the Republican leadership team called on Rep. Tony Gonzales to withdraw from his reelection race on Thursday, after the Texas congressman admitted to having an affair with a former staffer. Relationships between members of Congress and their staff are prohibited under the House Code of Official Conduct.
The Admission
Gonzales had denied the affair for months. However, on Wednesday night he admitted on a YouTube show that he did engage in a relationship with the staffer. The following morning, Johnson, Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Whip Tom Emmer and Chairwoman Lisa McClain issued a joint statement calling on Gonzales to withdraw from his primary runoff race.
The Staffer
The affair was with Gonzales’s former regional director, Regina Santos-Aviles, first reported by the San Antonio Express-News. Santos-Aviles died last year after setting herself on fire outside her Uvalde home. Her husband, Adrian Aviles, shared text messages between the two with Axios. In one message from May 2024, Gonzales asked Santos-Aviles for a sexy pic. She replied: “this is too far tony.”
The Ethics Investigation
The House Ethics Committee formally launched an investigation into Gonzales the morning after his primary election. Johnson and other leaders urged the committee to act quickly. Gonzales has said he will fully cooperate. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, who is leading a push to censure Gonzales, told Axios she has seen what she describes as photo evidence of the affair. She said she does not plan to release the photos herself.
The Political Calculation
Leadership notably stopped short of calling on Gonzales to resign from his seat entirely. Johnson described resignation as a political death penalty. The reason is straightforward. If Gonzales were to resign, Johnson’s already razor-thin House majority would shrink further, making it even harder to pass party-line legislation. President Trump has not withdrawn his endorsement of Gonzales.
Why This Matters to You
This story raises important questions about accountability and power in Congress. A sitting member of Congress admitted to violating the House Code of Official Conduct by having a relationship with a staffer. Yet his own party’s leadership is not asking him to resign from his seat, only from his reelection race. The decision appears to be driven more by political math than by principle.
For voters, this is a reminder that the rules governing elected officials are only as effective as the willingness to enforce them. It is worth thinking about: Should congressional ethics rules have stronger enforcement mechanisms that do not depend on political leaders deciding when to act? What does it say about the current state of accountability in Congress that leadership’s primary concern appears to be the size of their majority rather than the conduct of their members? And with the Ethics Committee now investigating, will the process lead to any real consequences?
