Rep. Tony Gonzales had everything he needed for a long political career. He was in a safely red district, and while he squeaked by in a challenge two years ago from Brandon Herrera, having to massively outspend the guntuber to win by only a few votes, he had the support of his party. When Herrera entered the race again, it probably just looked like round two of the same fight.
Then one of his staffers, Regina Santos-Aviles, killed herself by self-immolation, a pretty gruesome way to die, but a fine way to send a message.
This sparked rumors of an affair, but they were just that, rumors.
Until they weren't.
Now, everything has come unraveled, leading to a runoff once again in the 23rd District of Texas.
Let's start with the fact that on Thursday, it was learned about a House ethics investigation:
In the initial primary of 2024, 54.9% of the votes were against Tony Gonzales. In the initial primary of 2026, 58.3% of the votes were against Tony Gonzales. After the bruising in the initial runoff of 2026, the U.S. House Ethics Committee opened an investigation into the allegations of an affair. From tpr.org:
The U.S. House Ethics Committee announced Wednesday that it has opened an investigation into Rep. Tony Gonzales, a Republican from Texas CD-23, following allegations involving his conduct toward a former staff member in his congressional office.
In a statement, the committee said it voted to create an investigative subcommittee to examine whether Gonzales may have violated the House Code of Official Conduct or other applicable rules.
According to the committee, the inquiry will focus on allegations that he may have engaged in sexual misconduct involving an employee in his office and whether he may have unfairly granted special favors or privileges.
In a YouTube video with Joe Pags, Representative Tony Gonzales admitted to “making a mistake.”
Herrera responded with this on X:
Hey Tony. Now that you’re in a truth telling mood and not lying anymore, and it was just a “lapse of judgement,” I had a question.
— Brandon Herrera (@TheAKGuy) March 5, 2026
Was this the only affair you’ve had while in office?
Answer carefully.
After all, this was the same day that Gonzales, among others, voted to block the release of sexual misconduct records associated with members of Congress. We know there's a slush fund to pay people off who accuse congressmen of sexual misconduct, but Rep. Nancy Mace wanted to release that.
One has to wonder how close that got, coupled with this post from Herrera, which hints that maybe Brandon knows something, led to this:
— Rep. Tony Gonzales (@RepTonyGonzales) March 6, 2026
So, let's replay the last week or so for a moment. It starts with the revelation of some pretty spicy text messages from Gonzales to Santos-Aviles, which started as flirtatious, but then got to the point where she said they were going too far, but Gonzales continued.
Republicans started coming out and endorsing Herrera left and right. Even those who showed some level of continued support only offered up a token level. Even President Trump turned on him, in time.
Then the primary comes, and not just is he back in a runoff with Herrera, he didn't even get the most votes in the primary, unlike two years ago when Herrera got less than 30 percent of the total in the primary.
Basically, in many other states, Tony would have lost.
Now, though, he's backed out of the race entirely because, frankly, no one wants him there.
Assuming the safely Republican seat is, in fact, safely Republican, Herrera is likely to be the next congressional representative from the district, and he'll be a solid pro-gun voice there, which will be a nice change of pace from the guy who never met a gun control law he didn't like.
I'm not sure what bothers me about Tony more, the fact that he's anti-gun, or that he shares the same name as the best tight end to ever play for my Atlanta Falcons.
Probably the former, but still...
Anyway, congratulations to Brandon Herrera.
Tony, you're certainly one of the congressmen of all time.
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