Photo: Regina Santos-Aviles/Facebook/Getty Images
An aide to Texas Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales admitted to having an affair with him in a text message sent prior to her death by suicide.
Regina Santos-Aviles made the admission on the morning of April 28, 2025, appearing to console a co-worker, according to a screenshot obtained by the New York Post.
"I had affair with our boss and I'm fine. You will be fine," she wrote, to which the co-worker responded, "I know I'll be fine, I'm not afraid of that."
Santos-Aviles' confession was initially reported by the San Antonio Express-News, which withdrew its endorsement of Santos in the upcoming March 3 Republican primary for Texas' 23rd Congressional District, claiming he "has questions to answer." Santos-Aviles, 35, who was married and had a child, died on September 13, 2025, after covering herself in gasoline and lighting herself on fire in the backyard of her Uvalde home.
Santos-Aviles worked as Gonazles' regional director and the colleague who shared the texts with the New York Post, who no longer works for Gonzales, said the affair was known among the congressman's staff during the 2024 election cycle. The former staffer said Santos-Aviles called them in tears after her husband, Adrian Aviles, discovered text messages exchanged between her and Gonzales confirming their affair and notified local staffers about the relationship in text messages of his own.
Santos-Aviles “went from the number one employee in the office to nothing" after the affair was exposed, according to the former staffer, with Gonzales canceling meetings arraigned by her and Santos-Aviles no longer accompanying him on visits to Uvalde.
“She talked about Tony every day,” the former staffer told the Express-News, claiming he expressed concerns about Santos-Aviles' mental well-being to Gonzales district director Jalen Falcon in June 2025.
Gonzalez, who is running for his fourth House term, previously denied allegations of an affair with a staffer, claiming it was just “people throwing rocks at me, saying I’m doing nasty things" when first reported by the Daily Mail in October.