The 2026 elections just got thrown into chaos.

There may be no coming back from this horrific death.

And a top Republican got caught in one ugly sex scandal that led to this bad ending. 

Texas Congressman Tony Gonzalez supports amnesty for illegal aliens and voted for Joe Biden’s gun grab bill that funded red flag confiscation laws.

Gonzalez is facing a conservative primary challenger in Brandon Herrera.

Polls show Herrera holding a great chance to defeat Gonzalez.

And on the day early voting started, a bombshell story that could extinguish Gonzalez’s hopes of victory dropped.

The San Antonio Express published a blockbuster story in which a former staffer in Gonzalez’s office shared text messages allegedly confirming that Gonzalez had an affair with staffer Regina Ann Santos-Aviles.

Aviles’ husband reportedly discovered the affair, which the staffer claimed sent Aviles into a depression after Gonzalez ended the relationship and later committed suicide by setting herself on fire.

“A former staffer in Gonzales’ district office who worked closely with the aide, Regina Ann “Regi” Santos-Aviles, said she told him they had an affair in 2024, and that she spiraled into a depression after her husband discovered the relationship and Gonzales abruptly cut her off. He also shared with the San Antonio Express-News a screenshot of a text message from Santos-Aviles in which she acknowledged having an “affair with our boss,” the paper reported.

“The former staffer said the relationship became known to some staff members during the 2024 election cycle. He said Gonzales stayed at the ex-staffer’s family’s rental cabin in Concan, near Uvalde, during the primary campaign, and that on two occasions in May 2024, Gonzales and Santos-Aviles went there together and stayed for one to two hours,” the paper also reported.

The former staffer told the Express that Aviles later texted her fellow staffers about the alleged affair 

“He said Santos-Aviles called him crying and distraught two weeks later to say her husband, Adrian Aviles, had discovered text messages that revealed her relationship with Gonzales. She told the staffer they had been having an affair. It was May 29, the day after Gonzales narrowly won a GOP primary runoff election against Brandon Herrera. He said Aviles later texted a group of Gonzales’ legislative district staffers to expose the relationship,” the story went on to say.

Shortly after this, Gonzalez and his senior staff froze out Aviles.

“According to the former staffer, operations in Gonzales’ two-person Uvalde regional office shifted after Aviles texted the staff about the affair. Gonzales and his district director, Jalen Falcon, canceled meetings with local organizations that had been arranged by Santos-Aviles and the former staffer. He said neither he nor Santos-Aviles accompanied Gonzales on any Uvalde visits after that point, marking a significant change,” the Express also reported.

Last summer, the depression worsened, and Aviles began taking medication.

“The former staffer said Santos-Aviles’ distress intensified in the months before her death and that she told him she went on antidepressants in the summer of 2025,” the Express’s story read.

Last August, Aviles stood in the family garage, doused herself with gasoline, and took her own life by setting herself on fire.

Gonzalez then didn’t attend Aviles’ funeral.

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