Regina Santos-Aviles, a 35-year-old aide to Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales, sent a text message to a colleague stating she had an affair with the congressman. Months later, she was found critically burned near her home in Uvalde, Texas. She died the next day, on September 14, 2025. The Bexar County Medical Examiner ruled her death a suicide.
The text, viewed by CBS News, was blunt:
I had affair with our boss and I'm fine.
Gonzales, a 45-year-old married father of six now running for his fourth term, has denied the allegation. At a panel appearance in November, he called "the rumors are completely untruthful." On Wednesday, he issued a statement refusing to address the claims further, saying he would not "engage in these personal smears and instead remain focused on helping President Trump secure the border and improve the lives of all Texans."
The story, reported by the San Antonio Express-News and CBS News, has detonated in the middle of a Republican primary where early voting is already underway.
Adrian Aviles, Santos-Aviles' husband, told the Express-News he discovered the affair in May 2024 after finding his wife texting Gonzales things he described as "sexual in nature." He said he addressed the situation by texting Gonzales and other staff members directly.
What followed, according to Adrian Aviles, was not accountability. It was isolation. He told the Express-News that after the discovery, his wife was cut off:
When that happened, they black-sheeped her. They severed communications with her. They gave her a month off. They're essentially trying to push her out ... and make her quit.
A former staffer separately told the Express-News that Santos-Aviles spiraled into depression after Gonzales cut her off. She had been responsible for 11 of the 23 counties in his district. By her husband's account, she was "damn good at what she did."
According to CBS News, Adrian Aviles did not mince words about the congressman. He told the Express-News that Gonzales "abused his power" and "should have held himself to a higher standard as a congressional leader."
Gonzales responded to the reporting not by addressing the substance but by attacking the source. He called Santos-Aviles a "kind soul who devoted her life to making the community a better place" while accusing his primary opponent, Brandon Herrera, of "using a disgruntled former staffer to smear her memory and score political points." His office alleged that the ex-staffer who reported the texts had moved to Los Angeles to work for Democratic campaigns. The ex-staffer denied being paid by any of Gonzales' primary opponents.
The deflection strategy is familiar. When the facts are ugly, go after the messenger.
Herrera, who lost to Gonzales in the last primary by just 400 votes, wasted no time. He called on Gonzales to exit the race, posting on social media:
This is completely unacceptable behavior for anyone, let along a sitting member of Congress. Tony must step down.
He is not alone. State Rep. Wes Vidrell, a Republican who represents part of Gonzales' congressional district, issued a statement that carried real weight:
If this is true, and it does appear credible, Tony should step down. The family deserves to heal and get past this terrible tragedy. That will be impossible to do if they have to see the person who did it show no remorse for the situation and get re-elected to represent them in Congress.
The San Antonio Express-News pulled its endorsement of Gonzales. Early voting in the March 3 primary started Tuesday.
Strip away the political maneuvering and this story has a human core that demands gravity. A 35-year-old woman, a mother, died in horrific circumstances. The medical examiner ruled it a suicide. The people closest to her say she was driven into despair after a powerful man used her and then discarded her when the relationship became inconvenient.
Conservatives rightly hold their leaders to a higher standard. That is not a weapon opponents use against us. It is a standard we chose. Family values are not a bumper sticker to be peeled off when the adhesive gets uncomfortable. If a Republican congressman conducted an affair with a subordinate, leveraged the power imbalance of that relationship, and then froze her out when it threatened his career, that is not a "personal smear." That is a failure of the character voters trusted him to possess.
Gonzales won his last general election by 24 points, though district boundaries have changed since then. He has built a career partly on the strength of his border district credentials. None of that insulates a man from the consequences of what is alleged here.
There are still open questions. The Uvalde Police Department's investigation has not been detailed publicly. The full circumstances of Santos-Aviles' death remain painful and unclear. Gonzales maintains the affair never happened. Voters will have to weigh his blanket denial against a text message viewed by a national news organization, the account of a grieving husband, and the corroboration of former staffers willing to speak on the record.
Accountability is not a smear. A woman is dead. Her family wants answers. Republican voters in Texas' 23rd district deserve to know exactly who they are sending back to Washington.
Regina Santos-Aviles left behind a son. That fact should sit heavier than any campaign statement.