{"id":137872,"date":"2026-02-18T20:44:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T20:44:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/137872\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T20:44:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T20:44:19","slug":"rep-tony-gonzales-aide-who-fatally-set-herself-on-fire-admitted-affair-with-lawmaker-text-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/137872\/","title":{"rendered":"Rep. Tony Gonzales aide who fatally set herself on fire admitted affair with lawmaker, text shows"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 An aide to Rep. Tony Gonzales<\/a> admitted that she had an affair with the Texas Republican in a text message to a colleague \u2014 months before she fatally set herself on fire.<\/p>\n

Regina Santos-Aviles<\/a> appeared to acknowledge the tryst early on the morning of April 28, 2025, saying: \u201cI had [an] affair with our boss and I\u2019m fine,\u201d according to a screenshot of the exchange obtained by The Post.<\/p>\n

Santos-Aviles\u2019 confession to her co-worker was first reported by the San Antonio Express-News<\/a>, which subsequently withdrew its endorsement<\/a> of Gonzales<\/a> in the March 3 GOP primary, saying the congressman \u201chas questions to answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regina Santos-Aviles, a staffer for Rep. Tony Gonzales, acknowledged in a text to a colleague that she had an affair with the congressman. Obtained by NY Post<\/p>\n

Rep. Tony Gonzales speaks during a press conference on Dec. 20, 2023. Go Nakamura for NY Post<\/p>\n

Gonzales told The Post in a statement Wednesday that he was \u201cnot going to engage in these personal smears and instead will remain focused on helping President Trump secure the border and improve the lives of all Texans.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMs. Santos-Aviles was a kind soul who devoted her life to making the community a better place,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cHer efforts led to improvements in school safety, healthcare, and rural water like never before.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s shameful that [primary rival] Brandon Herrera is using a disgruntled former staffer to smear her memory and score political points, conveniently pushing this out the very day early voting started,\u201d the lawmaker added.<\/p>\n

In December, President Trump endorsed Gonzales for re-election to a fourth House term.<\/p>\n

On Sept. 13, 2025,\u00a0Santos-Aviles covered herself in gasoline<\/a>\u00a0before lighting herself ablaze in the backyard of her Uvalde, Texas, home.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She died of her injuries the following day.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old wife and mother of one worked as a regional director for Gonzales in the Lone Star State\u2019s 23rd Congressional District, which comprises much of the area of west Texas bordering Mexico, including the western outskirts of San Antonio.<\/p>\n

Rep. Tony Gonzales with his wife, Angel, in an undated photo. Facebook \/ Congressman Tony Gonzales<\/p>\n

Regina Santos-Aviles (right) in an undated photo. Adrian Aviles \/ Facebook<\/p>\n

The former colleague of Santos-Aviles, who provided the message to The Post and\u00a0has since moved to Los Angeles to work on Democratic\u00a0campaigns there, told the Express-News the affair became known among the congressman\u2019s staff members during the 2024 election cycle.<\/p>\n

That May, the person said, Santos-Aviles called them in tears because her husband, Adrian Aviles, had discovered text messages between Gonzales and Santos-Aviles confirming the affair and texted a group of local staffers to expose the relationship.<\/p>\n

After that, in the former staffer\u2019s words, Santos-Aviles \u201cwent from the number one employee in the office to nothing.\u201d Gonzales canceled meetings arranged by his regional director and Santos-Aviles no longer accompanied him on visits to Uvalde.<\/p>\n

Regina Santos-Aviles (right) took her own life by setting herself on fire. Facebook \/ Regina Santos Aviles<\/p>\n

Congressional aide Regina Santos-Aviles took her own life last year. Regina Santos Aviles \/ Facebook<\/p>\n

\u201cShe talked about Tony every day,\u201d the former staffer told the Express-News, recalling that he went to Gonzales district director Jalen Falcon in June 2025 with concerns about Santos-Aviles\u2019 mental well-being.<\/p>\n

The ex-Gonzales aide told The Post Wednesday that it was a \u201cterrible thing that happened,\u201d and reaffirmed the congressman \u201cjust avoided\u201d Santos-Aviles after the spring of 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re trying to contain all this,\u201d the onetime staffer added of Gonzales\u2019 response to the reports.<\/p>\n

Gonzales\u00a0previously\u00a0said that the purported fling, which was\u00a0first reported by the Daily Mail<\/a>\u00a0in October, was just \u201cpeople throwing rocks at me, saying I\u2019m doing nasty things.\u201d<\/p>\n

US Rep. Tony Gonzales and Regina Santos-Aviles are pictured with Elon Musk during his Sept. 28, 2023, visit to a migrant processing site in Eagle Pass, Texas. James Keivom<\/p>\n

Santos-Aviles poured gasoline over herself and set herself on fire in the backyard of her Uvalde, Texas, home on Sept. 13, 2025. Regina Santos Aviles \/ Facebook<\/p>\n

\u201cIn politics, you better have thick skin,\u201d\u00a0he told local station KSAT this past November<\/a>. \u201cI totally get that, but the rumors are completely untruthful.\u201d<\/p>\n

This past October, Santos-Aviles\u2019 mother claimed to The Post that reports of her daughter\u2019s affair with Gonzales taking place after she split from Aviles were \u201ccompletely false.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it has any merit,\u201d she said at the time.<\/p>\n

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton\u2019s office decided in December to seal 911 calls, police reports and other video of the tragic suicide in response to media requests.<\/p>\n

Javier Guerra, a former attorney for Adrian Aviles, has said his client had expressed concern about his late wife\u2019s private records being released.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 An aide to Rep. Tony Gonzales admitted that she had an affair with the Texas Republican…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9829,858,14655,9,11,10,87,2134,23690,1777,7316,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-137872","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-affairs","9":"tag-congress","10":"tag-lawmakers","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-news","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-republicans","16":"tag-scandals","17":"tag-texas","18":"tag-us-house-of-representatives","19":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}