A Texas congressman claims he's being blackmailed by the husband of a former staffer whom he allegedly had an affair with and later died by suicide.
Representative Tony Gonzales, a married father of six, addressed the ongoing scandal Thursday in a post on X following text messages revealed Tuesday indicating that he had a romantic relationship with Regina Ann "Regi" Santos-Aviles, an aide who died in September after setting herself on fire outside her home in Uvalde, Texas.
"I WILL NOT BE BLACKMAILED," Gonzales wrote. "Disgusting to see people profit politically and financially off a tragic death. The public should IMMEDIATELY have full access to the Uvalde police report."
Gonzales, a 45-year-old Republican who took office in 2021, also posted a portion of an email seemingly indicating a request by an attorney for the staffer's husband of a $300,000 settlement from the congressman in exchange for a nondisclosure agreement.
A former staffer in the Republican's office who worked closely with Santos-Aviles, 35, said the pair had a fling in 2024 that sent her spiraling into depression after her husband, Adrian Aviles, discovered text messages confirming the relationship, including one in which she acknowledged having an "affair with our boss," the San Antonio Express-News reported earlier this week.
The message shared Thursday by Aviles' attorney, Robert Barrera, is not dated, but Barrera confirmed to the newspaper that he wrote the message.
Gonzales, who has previously dismissed accusations of the affair, refused to answer questions about the alleged illicit relationship on Wednesday, but blamed his opponent in an upcoming GOP primary for trying to use Santos-Aviles' death to score political points, the Texas Tribune reported.
The screenshot shared Thursday by Gonzales shows that Barrera had been considering filing a lawsuit under the Congressional Accountability Act, which allows staffers to sue for discrimination, harassment or labor violations up to $300,000.
"If you are well enough to visit, I would be happy to do so," Barrera wrote. "If not, if you or your staff could let me know with whom I should be conferring, that would be great."
Barrera, meanwhile, told the Express-News he was shocked Gonzales shared a portion of the confidential message he sent to the congressman's San Antonio-based attorney, J.D. Paurstein on February 10, adding he didn't receive a response.
"This is clearly a last act of a desperate man who is going to do anything but admit what he did," Barrera told the newspaper.
The letter "clearly shows we did not want to go public and we weren't attempting to damage his career," he said.
Barrera has said the affair had been an open secret, but doesn't believe it played a role in Santos-Aviles' death, which did not reveal evidence of foul play, authorities have said.
A 24-year-old former staffer for Gonzales said he considered revealing what he knew about the liaison as early as November, but feared losing his job. He resigned last month after determining he could no longer promote the congressman's "message and ideals," the Express-News reported.
Some staff members found out about the trysts between Gonzales and Santos-Aviles during the 2024 election cycle, the former staffer said. The pair had stayed at a rental cabin in Concan, Texas, during the primary campaign and visited for several hours on two occasions in May 2024, the former staffer said.
Aviles discovered text messages confirming his wife's relationship with Gonzales in late May, one day after the congressman narrowly won a GOP runoff election. The scorned husband later texted a group of Gonzales' district staffers to expose the affair, according to the ex-staffer.
Gonzales has previously addressed Santos-Aviles’ death during an interview in November at the Texas Tribune Festival, where he dispelled “rumors” linked to her death, which he characterized as a “very tragic situation,” the newspaper reported.
“People throwing rocks at me, saying I’m doing nasty things -- I totally get that,” Gonzales said. “But the rumors are completely untruthful.”
The Express-News has since pulled its endorsement of Gonzales following publication of the text messages sent by Santos-Aviles.
“I had [an] affair with our boss and I’m fine,” Aviles-Santos wrote on April 28, 2025.
Aviles-Santos then started taking antidepressants last summer as her stress connected to the affair deepened, the former staffer told the Express-News.
Gonzales, a married father of six, committed an "act of deception" by carrying out the affair with a staffer, the newspaper wrote in a separate editorial on Tuesday.
"We see a disturbing lack of character from an elected official,"
the Express-News editorial board wrote.
Some Republicans in Texas are also calling on the congressman to resign. His opponent in the upcoming primary, Brandon Herrera, lost to Gonzales by just 400 votes in a 2024 runoff.