Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas admitted on Wednesday to carrying out an affair with a married staffer, Regina Ann Santos-Aviles, who died by self-immolation last year.
Reports detailing the affair have dogged Gonzales’ reelection campaign for several weeks, culminating in a projected second-place finish in his primary race Tuesday — though the final results were close enough to force a runoff.
Gonzales had previously denied that he engaged in the affair, calling the allegations “blackmail” after a settlement request from the attorney of Santos-Aviles’ husband.
“I made a mistake, and there was a lapse in judgment, and there was a lack of faith, and I take full responsibility for those actions,” Gonzales said in a YouTube interview with conservative radio host Joe Pagliarulo. “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.”
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Earlier this month the congressman’s text messages with Santos-Aviles were reported in the San Antonio Express-News. In the exchanges, Gonzales pushes Santos-Aviles, who was his regional district director at the time, to have sexual conversations despite her insistence that “this has gone too far.”
Gonzales acknowledged on Wednesday that it is “important to be having the conversation” about sexual harassment in the workplace, but alleged the recent coverage of the affair has “from day one been about power and money.” He accused media outlets of not reporting the full story, despite his previous insistence that the stories were inaccurate.
“So far what you’ve seen is certain outlets only sharing certain information that is beneficial to them,” Gonzales said in the almost 20-minute interview.
Santos-Aviles, who was 35, died by suicide following a confrontation with her husband about the affair, according to police reports cited by the Express-News.
Her husband, Adrian Aviles, confirmed the affair in a late-February interview with CNN, calling Gonzales “a predator.”
“This is not a political thing for me. I want everybody to know that. I don’t care two cents about the whole political matter behind it,” Aviles told CNN’s Erin Burnett. “I care about facts. I care about what he has done and how he’s continued to lie on Regina’s name.”
“This guy is a coward,” he added.
In Wednesday’s interview, Gonzales said the news of Aviles-Santos’ hospitalization came “as a surprise” and that within hours of her death, “it became about money.”
“Within hours her estranged husband reached out to our office and asked about her death benefits and how he could gain access to her retirement fund,” Gonzales said. “It was eerie, it was creepy.”
Gonzales’ interview came after the House Ethics Committee announced it had opened an investigation into allegations of the affair. Several lawmakers have called for Gonzales to resign or be expelled since the news of his affair became public, including some Republicans.
Gonzales said he had “absolutely nothing to do” with Santos-Aviles’ death and suggested the movement against him is a “targeted attack” due to his support for the Trump administration.
“Those that are asking for me not to do my job are those that want to see Republicans fail here in Congress,” Gonzales said. “We can’t let anything slow us down from executing President Trump’s agenda.”
“Everything is on the line as far as these midterms,” he added. “I’m the only one that can not only win in the primary but hold it in the general.”
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