Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, is seen right here at a information convention on border safety outdoors of the U.S. Capitol Constructing on November 14, 2023.
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Anna Moneymaker/Getty Photos/Getty Photos North America
Rep. Tony Gonzales is dealing with mounting stress from inside his personal social gathering to resign amid new particulars of an alleged affair between the Texas Republican and a staffer who later died by suicide.
No less than 4 Home Republicans have referred to as on Gonzales to both resign or finish his bid for reelection after express textual content messages surfaced from Gonzales to his then-employee Regina Santos-Aviles, who later died after setting herself on hearth.
“America deserves higher. Tony ought to drop out of the race,” posted Texas Republican Rep. Brandon Gill on Monday.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., agreed, writing: “Tony, it’s best to drop out of the race.”
GOP Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Nancy Mace of South Carolina have referred to as for Gonzales to resign.
Gonzales’ workplace didn’t reply to a request for remark, however the congressman has beforehand denied the allegations.
NPR has not independently reviewed the textual content messages.
The firestorm comes as Home Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is clinging to a razor-thin majority within the decrease chamber. Republicans at the moment have a 4-seat majority and there’s hypothesis extra members with retirement plans may depart forward of this 12 months’s midterm elections.
Gonzales is already dealing with a probe into the alleged affair by the Workplace of Congressional Conduct, an unbiased Home workplace, based on a supply accustomed to the matter who was not approved to debate it publicly. The OCC is predicted to show over their findings to the Home Ethics Committee within the coming weeks.
Requested whether or not Gonzales ought to resign, Johnson referred to as the allegations “very critical” and stated the method has to play out.
“As in each case like this, you need to permit the investigations to play out and all of the information to return out,” Johnson informed reporters on Monday. “If the accusation of one thing goes to be the litmus check for somebody having the ability to proceed to serve within the Home, you may have lots of people who must resign or be eliminated or expelled from Congress.”
Gonzales is in his third time period representing Texas’ twenty third congressional district, a seat in Southwest Texas. He faces a troublesome major contest on March 3, and will head right into a repeat of a Republican runoff in 2024 that noticed him edge out conservative YouTuber Brandon Herrera by solely about 350 votes.
Herrera, a vocal gun rights supporter often known as “the AK man,” drew the backing of a number of Republicans, together with members of the ultra-conservative Home Freedom Caucus.
Within the midst of the fallout on Monday, the political arm of the Home Freedom Caucus weighed in to endorse Herrera. The group, whose members have beforehand attacked Gonzales as not conservative sufficient, made no point out of the allegations in its endorsement.
“Brandon is a daring, unapologetic defender of the Second Modification and a steadfast champion of the constitutional rights that safeguard our freedoms,” the Freedom Caucus Fund stated in a press release on X.
