US congressman refuses to resign after allegations of affair with staffer

US congressman Tony Gonzales refused growing calls to resign from his fellow Republicans on Tuesday amid a furore over allegations that he had an affair with a staffer who later died by suicide.

Gonzales has been accused of sending sexually explicit text messages in which he appeared to pressure the senior staffer to share images of herself and, eventually, coerced her into a sexual relationship.

Gonzales, who is running for re-election, told reporters on Tuesday that he was not going to resign. “There will be an opportunity for all the details and facts to come out. What you’ve seen is not all the facts. And there will be ample time for all of that to come out,” he said.

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Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky joined Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, Nancy Mace of South Carolina, and other Republicans in demanding that Gonzales step down immediately over the allegations. It followed calls from Texas Republicans Brandon Gill and Chip Roy for his resignation on Monday. “America deserves better,” said Gill, endorsing Gonzales’s main opponent. “Tony should drop out of the race.”

Mace also announced that she has introduced a resolution to force the House ethics committee to publicly release its wider reports and records of allegations of sexual harassment against members of Congress.

The US House speaker, Mike Johnson, said earlier on Tuesday that he would speak to Gonzales about the allegations. The accusations “must be taken seriously”, Johnson said, but he stopped short of calling for resignation. Donald Trump endorsed Gonzales for reelection in December.

“In every case like this, you have to allow the investigation to play out and all the facts to come out,” Johnson said. “If the accusation of something is going to be the litmus for someone being able to continue to serve in the House, a lot of people would have to resign or be removed or expelled from Congress.”

Gonzales is in the midst of a bruising re-election campaign that is now in turmoil. He faces a tough Republican primary challenge on 3 March which could ultimately lead to the loss of his seat, with his main GOP rival being Brandon Herrera, a gun manufacturer and gun rights influencer who almost unseated him in 2024. The race is in such disarray that there is even chatter of a possible chance for Democrats to flip the seat.

The three-term congressman has denied the affair and previously said on social media that he is being blackmailed and called the allegations a political smear. But he has not addressed newly released text messages in which he appeared to ask the former staffer for intimate photos and discuss sex acts. The Guardian reached out to Gonzales for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

The San Antonio Express-News first reported last week that it had obtained text messages in which the former staffer, Regina Ann Santos-Aviles, wrote to a colleague that she had an affair with the married lawmaker.

The paper has since published further text messages that Gonzales allegedly sent to Santos-Aviles, 35, in May last year, including one sent at 12.15am on 9 May that said: “Send me a sexy pic.”

In further messages, the father-of-six reportedly went on to ask her about her favorite sex positions and to fantasize about having sex with her. According to a number of Texas media reports, Santos-Aviles said Gonzales was going too far.

In a message to another staffer, it was reported that Santos-Aviles wrote that “I had affair with our boss.”

Santos-Aviles, a married mother of an eight-year-old son, died in September after setting herself on fire in the backyard of her home in Uvalde, Texas. Her death was later ruled a suicide.