{"id":583172,"date":"2026-04-14T07:16:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T07:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/583172\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T07:16:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T07:16:14","slug":"gop-rep-tony-gonzales-to-resign-from-congress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/583172\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales to resign from Congress"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy<\/a>, and give us feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio, said he would resign from the U.S. House on Tuesday, ending a five-year congressional career months after he revealed he had an affair with an aide who later died by suicide.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a season for everything and God has a plan for us all,\u201d Gonzales said in a statement Monday evening. \u201cWhen Congress returns tomorrow, I will file my retirement from office. It has been my privilege to serve the great people of Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gonzales\u2019 resignation announcement came about an hour after Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-California, announced his own resignation from the House. Swalwell\u2019s move to step down came in the wake of allegations from numerous former staffers who said the Democrat engaged in sexual misconduct, including sexual assault.<\/p>\n

Members of Congress had planned to bring expulsion resolutions against both lawmakers this week, and numerous members from each party indicated they would vote in favor. Gonzales\u2019 statement did not specify whether his \u201cretirement from office\u201d would be effective immediately, though his prior announcement that he would not seek reelection suggested his latest statement referred to resignation.<\/p>\n

Rep. Teresa Leger Fern\u00e1ndez, a New Mexico Democrat and chair of the Democratic Women\u2019s Caucus, had announced plans to bring an expulsion resolution against Gonzales this week. A Leger Fern\u00e1ndez spokesperson said she still plans to file the resolution at 2 p.m. EST Tuesday, given the vague language in Gonzales\u2019 statement, unless he files his resignation \u201ceffective immediately\u201d before then.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gonzales, a Navy veteran first elected in 2020, admitted to having an affair with a staffer in early March, weeks after the San Antonio Express-News reported on the extramarital tryst, including text messages in which the staffer pushed back against Gonzales\u2019 requests for nude photos. <\/p>\n

After finishing second in the March Republican primary, GOP leaders \u2014 including U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson \u2014 urged him to drop his reelection bid, and Gonzales followed suit soon after. But most Republicans had stopped short of calling for his resignation or expulsion until the Swalwell allegations brought sexual misconduct to the fore, opening the door for expelling one member from each party without upsetting the partisan makeup of a narrowly divided House.<\/p>\n

The House Ethics Committee had opened<\/a> an investigation into the San Antonio congressman to determine whether he \u201cengaged in sexual misconduct towards an individual employed in his office\u201d and \u201cdiscriminated unfairly by dispensing special favors or privileges.\u201d<\/p>\n

House rules prohibit members of Congress from engaging in sexual relationships with their employees.<\/p>\n

A former Gonzales campaign staffer came forward last week saying Gonzales had been sexually inappropriate with her as well, including sharing text messages in which the then-candidate had asked her for nude photos and for sex.<\/p>\n

The most moderate Republican from Texas in Congress, Gonzales was both an outspoken voice on the need for border security and an occasional critic of his party\u2019s approach to immigration.<\/p>\n

His pending resignation will leave Texas\u2019 23rd Congressional District vacant. Gov. Greg Abbott has the power to set a special election date at his discretion.<\/p>\n

The 23rd District, which runs from San Antonio to El Paso County and includes numerous West Texas border towns, was a swing district throughout the 2010s but had become more Republican in recent cycles through a combination of redistricting and political shifts, especially among its majority-Hispanic population.<\/p>\n

But with Democrats enthused by a recent string of special election overperformances, including a state Senate flip in North Texas, the race to replace Gonzales could be more competitive. National Democrats were already eyeing the seat as a pickup opportunity in the November general election, encouraged by recent trends suggesting Hispanic voters have shifted leftward since 2024.<\/p>\n

The Republican nominee in the November general election is Brandon Herrera, a gun rights activist and YouTuber who had challenged Gonzales in the primary in two successive cycles. <\/p>\n

Herrera, who is much further right than Gonzales, initially took issue with Gonzales\u2019 vote, in the wake of the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, for a bipartisan gun safety bill loathed by hardline gun rights activists. As Gonzales\u2019 affair came to light, Herrera has been deeply critical of the congressman\u2019s ethical conduct, and had called for him to resign for months.<\/p>\n

Gonzales has previously called Herrera a \u201cknown neo-Nazi\u201d \u2014 an allegation Herrera disputes as \u201cobvious[ly]\u201d untrue.<\/p>\n

\u201cNature is healing,\u201d Herrera wrote<\/a> on social media, responding to Gonzales\u2019 announcement Monday.<\/p>\n

While the district is not on congressional Democrats\u2019 target list, Herrera\u2019s controversial online persona has made Democrats in Texas and Washington more interested in the seat. Democrats have shared clips of Herrera discussing owning a copy of \u201cMein Kampf\u201d and YouTube clips in which he refers to a gun as the \u201coriginal ghetto blaster\u201d and makes Holocaust puns.<\/p>\n

The Democratic nominee in the November election is Katy Padilla Stout, a San Antonio attorney and former elementary school teacher.<\/p>\n

Both would be expected to enter a special election for the remainder of Gonzales\u2019 term if Abbott schedules it. Unlike the general election, it would be open to multiple candidates from both parties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy, and give…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,1340,3,164750,225381,21,19,22,20,25,24,128542],"class_list":{"0":"post-583172","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-congress","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-texas-congressional-delegation","12":"tag-tony-gonzales","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa","19":"tag-well-b-homepage"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}