Texas GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales Files Retirement After Affair With Staffer Who Died by Suicide

Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas filed his formal retirement from the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday, ending a five-year congressional career under a cloud of sexual misconduct allegations and the looming threat of only the seventh expulsion vote in American history. The announcement, made Monday evening on social media, came just hours after Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California also announced his own resignation — creating the unusual spectacle of a Republican and a Democrat simultaneously exiting Congress on the same day over unrelated misconduct allegations.

Gonzales, who represented Texas's 23rd congressional district spanning a large swath of South and West Texas along the U.S.-Mexico border, admitted earlier this year to having an affair with a senior aide, Regina Santos-Aviles, who later died after setting herself on fire. The revelation triggered an Ethics Committee investigation and drew bipartisan calls for Gonzales to leave Congress. A House vote on his expulsion had appeared increasingly likely before his announcement Monday. "There is a season for everything and God has a plan for us all," Gonzales said in his statement. "When Congress returns tomorrow, I will file my retirement."

The misconduct allegations against Gonzales extended beyond the affair. The Ethics Committee was also examining other conduct during his time in office, and the combination of the investigation, the affair with a staffer whose death shocked his congressional colleagues, and a failed primary campaign — he lost his GOP primary and was pulled into a runoff before withdrawing — had left him politically isolated. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a Florida Republican, had already announced plans to force an expulsion vote, which under House rules requires a two-thirds supermajority and has succeeded only six times in U.S. history.

The practical political consequences of both resignations happening simultaneously are significant. With Gonzales and Swalwell departing, the House majority will temporarily stand at 216-213 in favor of Republicans, thinning the GOP's already razor-thin margin. Governor Greg Abbott of Texas will call a special election for the 23rd district, which encompasses cities including Eagle Pass, Del Rio, and portions of San Antonio's outer suburbs. Democrat Katy Padilla Stout and Republican Brandon Herrera are among the candidates expected to compete in what could be a competitive race for a district that has shifted between the parties in recent cycles.

The dual departures mark one of the more striking single-day episodes in the ethics history of Congress. Democrats had been pressing for Gonzales's expulsion as a counterweight to Republican efforts to expel Swalwell. With both now resigned, the Ethics Committee proceedings against each have been effectively halted — the committee lacks jurisdiction over former members. Some congressional observers noted the symmetry was politically convenient for leadership in both parties, allowing them to sidestep extended expulsion fights that could have consumed the legislative calendar and further embarrassed both caucuses during an already turbulent period.