Defiant Congressman Tony Gonzales said he will not step down despite a mounting scandal surrounding his alleged affair with an aide who killed herself. 

On Capitol Hill Tuesday, the Texas Republican would not deny or confirm the affair as reporters grilled him about sexually explicit texts he allegedly sent former aide Regina Aviles.

‘I will not resign. I work everyday for the people of Texas. And there will be an opportunity for all the details and facts that come out. What you’ve seen is not all the facts,’ the married, father-of-six told reporters.

However, Gonzales refusal to step down comes as a growing number of GOP members of Congress are calling him for step aside. 

Rep. Chip Roy (TX), Rep. Lauren Boebert (Colorado) and Rep. Nancy Mace (SC) are just some who have publicly called for Gonzales to resign.

Mace has gone so far as to introduce a resolution calling on the House Ethics Committee to publicly release all investigations into members of Congress accused of sexual harassment of staff or of a sexual relationship with a member of their staff– which is against House rules. 

Gonzales has been under investigation by the Office of Congressional Conduct into whether he violated House Rule 23, banning members of Congress from sleeping with their staffers. 

Daily Mail was the first to expose the alleged affair in October– just weeks after Aviles’s death.

Gonzales and Aviles are pictured with Elon Musk in Texas in September 2023. Their alleged affair began the year before, it is claimed 

At the time, he did not deny the affair, but in November, Gonzales said it wasn’t true. 

This week, the Daily Mail obtained a sexually explicit exchange between Gonzales and Aviles in 2024 in which the congressman pressured her for sexy photos and quizzed her about her favorite sex positions.

The scandal has thrown Gonzales’s re-election bid into turmoil just as voters in Texas have begun casting primary ballots.

In a text sent at 12.15am, Gonzales wrote: ‘Send me a sexy pic.’

Aviles, then-director of his regional district office in Uvalde, replied that she’d had a rough week and ‘you don’t really want a hot picture of me.’

The texts became increasingly pushy. ‘Yes I do,’ Gonzales replied, adding, ‘Hurry.’

‘No, I just don’t like taking pictures of myself,’ Aviles responded a few minutes later.

‘I’m just such a visual person,’ Gonzales persisted.

The congressman went on to ask Aviles about her favorite sexual positions, including a crass one-word message: ‘A**l?’

Gonzales is currently running for re-election and is campaigning as a family man, complete with photos of his wife and children, despite the alleged affair.

Aviles, a married mother of one, died after she set herself in fire in her backyard after dousing herself with gasoline in September 2025. 

Daily Mail first reported the alleged affair in October, and Gonzales did not deny the affair when given the opportunity, however, he later publicly denied the affair in November. 

Last week, Daily Mail also obtained another text where Aviles confirmed her relationship with her boss to a friend and colleague.

‘I had [an] affair with our boss.’ Daily Mail has confirmed the phone number belongs to the late Aviles. 

US Representative Tony Gonzales, pictured in a campaign photo with his wife and six children presenting himself as a family man had two trysts in a cabin with a married aide before her suicide, a friend alleged 

Gonzales’s alleged mistress Regina Aviles (pictured with her husband Adrian) killed herself after the affair was discovered by her spouse, who moved out of the couple’s home with their eight-year-old son 

Aviles referenced her alleged affair with her then-boss Congressman Tony Gonzales in a text message to a friend who shared this text conversation with the Daily Mail. In a gray text bubble, Aviles was allegedly comforting a friend over problems at work. She allegedly typed, ‘I had [an] affair with our boss and I’m fine. You will be fine.’

A few weeks after the cabin fever, Aviles reportedly came clean to her friend, admitting she was having an affair with their boss in a tearful conversation.

‘It appears that I f**ked up,’ the co-worker claims Aviles told him.

‘She was hysterically crying, and that’s when she told me, “I’ve been screwing Tony,”‘ he recounted of their May 2024 conversation.

The married, mother-of-one had been Gonzales’s regional district director in Uvalde since 2021. 

After Aviles told her friend about the affair, she shared text messages between herself and her boss, her friend claimed.

‘It was more like, “You’re so gorgeous,’ he described of the ‘lovey dovey’ messages his friend read him off her phone.

‘They were very sexual, too. “I can’t wait to get back so I can blank your brains out.”‘

Aviles confidate claims his friend and the Congressman also shared sexually explicit photos, including dick pics, that Aviles talked about but never showed him. 

After the alleged cabin encounters, Aviles is said to have been paranoid about whether it had cameras.

She relaxed after being told it did not, her friend said, but grew increasingly worried about her spouse learning about the relationship.  

‘She was like, “Adrian’s going to find out. It’s not good,”‘ the source said. 

Aviles’s husband discovered the alleged affair in July 2025 and sent a group text to multiple Gonzales staffers to tell them he knew, Aviles’s friend claimed. 

After Aviles’s husband found out about her infidelity and moved out of the family home with their son, she fell into a deep depression, her friend said. 

Gonzales also spurned her affections after the romance became known, it is alleged.  

‘I remember she would try to text (Gonzales) all the time. He’d never respond. I’d tell her, “Don’t text him, you don’t need to do that,” but she was still obsessed with him. He did a number on her,’ he said.

Aviles tried to take her own life a month before her death, her friend said.  

‘I don’t know how far she attempted to go, but I know Adrian called (911) for a reason. He thought she was really going to hurt herself, and I saw how bad she had gotten. I knew she had attempted suicide and was going to do something stupid,’ he disclosed. 

Tragically, she succeeded in taking her own life in September 2025 after dousing herself in gasoline in the backyard of her home and setting herself alight.

Aviles was found engulfed in flames at her Uvalde home (above) on September 13. Investigators determined she was home alone at the time

Aviles is pictured in a professional headshot. Gonzales was first elected to Congress in 2021 and hopes to be re-elected in 2026

Aviles’s death was ruled a suicide, with an autopsy revealing she was drunk at the time of her death.  

Aviles’s friend claims he’s speaking out now because he wants voters to have all the information about the lawmaker ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. 

‘Tony after what he did, does not deserve to be a public servant. He doesn’t,’ the former staffer said.

‘The right thing is always the truth, no matter, how ugly it is, and I think that his office has hurt a lot of people. It took her life.’

Gonzales faces a tough primary challenge against YouTuber and gun enthusiast Brandon Herrera for the March 3 election. 

Early voting for the Republican primary in Texas began on February 17.

For help and support contact the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline on 988