Republican Allegedly Had an Affair With an Aide Who Set Herself on Fire: Report

Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images

Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) allegedly had an affair with an aide who took her own life by setting herself on fire, according to a new report.

Regina Ann Santos-Aviles was 35 years old when she covered herself in gasoline outside her home and died by self-immolation in September of 2025. A former Gonzales staffer told Express News that her battle with depression began after her husband discovered text messages where she admitted to having an affair with Gonzales.

The staffer claimed the relationship between Gonzales, a Republican representing Texas’s 23rd congressional district, and Santos-Aviles became known to some members of the congressman’s staff in 2024. Santos-Aviles’s husband’s attorney, Bobby Barrera, said the affair “was not a secret among the staff.”

“It’s common knowledge,” he told Express News. “The staff was clearly aware this event was
occurring.”

In text messages obtained and verified by Express News, Gonzales told the former staffer she was having an “affair with our boss” in April of 2024. The staffer, who resigned from Gonzales’s office in January, claimed Santos-Aviles called him crying after her husband, Adrian Aviles, discovered the relationship through text messages and later texted a group of Gonzales’s staffers exposing the affair.

The staffer claimed that after that event, Gonzales canceled meetings set up by Santos-Aviles, and Santos-Aviles no longer accompanied the congressman on Uvalde visits. Santos-Aviles became increasingly distressed, according to the former staffer. He claimed she told him she went on antidepressants in the summer of 2025, and began to miss work frequently.

“She talked about Tony every day,” he said. “She went from the number one employee in the
office to nothing.”

The former staffer said that he told Gonzales’s district director in June that he was worried about Santos-Aviles. He also claimed that a month before her death, Santos-Aviles attempted suicide, though Express News did not confirm that event.

Gonzales’s office did not respond to the outlet’s request for comment. In November of last year, the congressman claimed in an interview that the “rumors are completely untruthful” surrounding the circumstances of Santos-Aviles’s death and called her passing a “very tragic situation.”

There was no evidence of foul play in Santos-Aviles’s death, according to authorities.

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