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By Joshua Rhett Miller
Senior Reporter
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A Texas congressman's affair with a staffer who set herself on fire had been widely known prior to her death last year, according to her husband's attorney.
Representative Tony Gonzales, 45, 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, according to text messages revealed Tuesday by the San Antonio Express-News.
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 newspaper reported.
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An attorney for Aviles said the affair had been an open secret, but does not 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, who has represented Texas's 23rd congressional district since 2021, 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.
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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 illicit affair, according to the ex-staffer.
"It's common knowledge," Aviles' attorney, Bobby Barrera, told the newspaper. "The staff was clearly aware this event was occurring."
Aviles is worried about commenting due to the impact the couple's 8-year-old son, Barrera said.
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"To him, this is personal," Barrera said. "To everybody else, it's political. That's his son's mother, and nobody seems to care. They just want to bury Tony."
Gonzales, meanwhile, 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."
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A message seeking comment from a spokesperson for Gonzales was not immediately returned early Wednesday.
The San Antonio Express-News has subsequently withdrawn its nomination of Gonzales in the upcoming Republican primary on March 3, insisting he has "questions to answer" regarding the affair confirmed via text messages sent by Santos-Aviles last spring.
"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.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sealed all 911 calls, police reports and video of Santos-Aviles' suicide in December in response to media requests, the New York Post reported.
Santos-Aviles' mother had previously denied reports of her daughter's affair with Gonzales.
"I don’t think it has any merit," she told the Post in October.
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