XPost: tx.politics, alt.politics.trump, alt.politics.republicans   
   XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, sac.politics   
   From: adrastea2050@live.com   
      
   An aide to Representative Tony Gonzales of Texas sent a text message to   
   a co-worker last April saying that she had an affair with the Republican   
   congressman, according to the co-worker who shared the text exchange   
   with The New York Times.   
      
   The text message, first reported on Tuesday by The San Antonio   
   Express-News, and then obtained on Wednesday by The Times, has thrown   
   Mr. Gonzales’s re-election fight into turmoil just as voters in Texas   
   have begun casting primary ballots.   
      
   The aide who said she had the affair died by suicide five months after   
   sending the text, when she lit herself on fire in the backyard of her   
   home.   
      
   “I had affair with our boss and I’m fine,” the aide, Regina Ann   
   Santos-Aviles, wrote last April 27, referring to Mr. Gonzales, a married   
   father of six.   
      
   Mr. Gonzales would not comment on allegations of an affair. The   
   congressman, who has at times broken with President Trump but has the   
   president’s endorsement, is locked in a tough primary fight with a   
   challenger to his right, Brandon Herrera. Mr. Gonzales accused Mr.   
   Herrera on Wednesday of being behind the release of the text message.   
      
   The staff member who received the text is no longer working for Mr.   
   Gonzales. The former aide said in an interview on Wednesday that he did   
   not agree with Mr. Herrera’s hard-right politics, but decided to share   
   screenshots of the text exchange with The Times because Ms.   
   Santos-Aviles had been a friend and had been wronged by Mr. Gonzales.   
      
   Mr. Gonzales said in the statement on Wednesday that Ms. Santos-Aviles   
   had been a “kind soul who devoted her life to making the community a   
   better place” but that he would not respond to the allegation of an   
   affair.   
      
   “I am not going to engage in these personal smears,” the congressman   
   said, adding that he would instead “remain focused on helping President   
   Trump secure the border and improve the lives of all Texans.”   
      
   But on Wednesday evening, Bobby Barrera, an attorney for Ms.   
   Santos-Aviles’ husband, Adrian Aviles, corroborated that Ms.   
   Santos-Aviles confessed to her husband in June of 2024 that she had been   
   having an affair with Mr. Gonzales for about a month. Mr. Aviles had   
   come home and noticed his wife was texting someone.   
      
   After he asked to see the phone, Mr. Barrera said he saw texts of Mr.   
   Gonzales asking for a meeting with his wife and requesting photos of   
   her.   
      
   “She made the admission that she was having an affair with Tony   
   Gonzales,” Mr. Barrera said.   
      
   Mr. Barrera said she broke off the affair and lived apart from her   
   husband. Marriage counseling failed. Ms. Santos-Aviles struggled   
   mentally and felt ostracized at her work, the lawyer said. The night of   
   her death, she told a friend that was wanted to harm herself and took a   
   video of the incident.   
      
   “People started making phone calls but by then it was too late,” he   
   said. “It was terribly tragic.”   
      
   https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/us/politics/texas-gonzales-suicide-aff   
   air.html   
      
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