Update: Rep. Tony Gonzales announced March 5 that he was dropping his bid for reelection ahead of an Ethics Committee investigation into his affair with a former staffer.

Reports alleging GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas sent sexually explicit texts to a now-deceased former aide have divided House Republicans. A handful have explicitly condemned him, with Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida filing a censure resolution against him Wednesday. 

Others, including the House speaker, have distanced themselves from the issue, saying they’ll wait for voters to decide on Gonzales’ fate — wanting to avoid further chipping away at incredibly close GOP voting margins.

On Tuesday, Gonzales advanced to a May 26 runoff election. He’ll face Brandon Herrera in a rematch of a race Gonzales narrowly won two years ago.

Republican Rep. Nancy Mace this week introduced a resolution to release all investigative reports into sexual misconduct allegations against members of Congress, saying her colleague is “not the only one” who has faced these claims of inappropriate advances. The measure failed to advance Wednesday after being met with skepticism by Ethics chair Michael Guest, a Mississippi Republican. The full House voted 357-65 to refer it to committee — where the measure will likely die.

“We believe the forced disclosures mandated by House Resolution 1072 could chill victim cooperation and witness participation in ongoing and future investigations,” Guest and ranking member Mark DeSaulnier wrote in a statement. “Victims may be retraumatized … and witnesses, who often only speak to the Committee confidentially or on condition of future anonymity, could fear retaliation if their cooperation is made public.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said leadership made a collective decision “that the most appropriate thing to do right now — since Nancy Mace is an unserious individual — is for the Ethics Committee to evaluate what’s appropriate moving forward in a bipartisan way.”

Mace blasted the vote results on X soon after, saying both parties had “colluded” to protect predators over survivors.

“Not one Member who voted against our transparency resolution gets to pretend they care about Epstein’s victims,” she posted, referring to the disgraced financier, a convicted sex offender who died awaiting trial on trafficking charges. “Sit down.”

On Wednesday,  in an interview with Joe Pags, a conservative talk show host , Gonzales admitted to “a lapse in judgement.” 

“I take full responsibility for those actions. Since then, I’ve reconciled with my wife, Angel, I’ve asked God to forgive me — which He has — and my faith is as strong as ever,” Gonzales said.

While he did not elaborate further on the staffer’s texts, he said he looks forward to the upcoming investigation and being able to explain “the entire situation.” Gonzales spent much of the interview deriding media coverage of the issue and categorizing the criticism against him as about “power and money.” 

“We can’t let anything slow us down from executing President Trump’s agenda,” Gonzales said of calls for him to resign. “We lose members, you’re seeing different members come and go, and different issues — there’s no time for that.”

The former aide, Regina Santos-Aviles, was Gonzales’ Uvalde district director. Her husband, Adrian Aviles, shared alleged exchanges between her and her boss with the media last week. (The texts have not been independently seen by The 19th.) Santos-Aviles died by suicide in September 2025.

The reported text messages from 2024 show Gonzales pushing conversations with Santos-Aviles into a sexual direction, despite her attempts to deter him. The San Antonio Express-News first reported the content of the text messages, which appear to show an affair. House members are prohibited from engaging in “unwelcome sexual advances” or having sexual relationships with staffers. 

Politico reported Wednesday that the nonpartisan Office of Congressional Conduct (OCC) said there is “substantial reason to believe” Gonzales had a sexual relationship with a subordinate in an apparent violation of House rules. While the OCC cannot discipline members, its reports are followed closely by the Ethics Committee, which opened its own inquiry Wednesday. Generally, these types of deliberations are kept out of the public eye. 

Gonzales’ case comes as the veneer of GOP unity among members has cracked, with representatives more boldly speaking out against each other, even as midterms approach. Oversight committee member Luna told reporters “there’s a lot there” ahead of filing motions to censure and strip Gonzales of his committee assignments — a rare weapon for fellow party members to wield against each other.

Though the Texas lawmaker has faced calls to step down, other Republicans said they wanted to see how Gonzales fared electorally instead of expulsion, hoping to avoid shaving already thinning vote margins. House Speaker Mike Johnson has punted the final decision to voters and said he will let the process “play out,” though he has since “encouraged him to address it publicly.”