Rep. Tony Gonzales was already facing a serious scandal, but the Texan is now confronting something new: GOP calls for his ouster.
It’s not every day when House Republicans call on one of their own colleagues to resign.
But the scandal surrounding Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas is not just another controversy — even if Speaker Mike Johnson is reluctant to act on it.
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— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-02-24T16:27:32.596Z
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/republican-congressman-faces-bipartisan-resignation-calls-following-latest-allegations
Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas was already facing a serious scandal. On Monday, however, newly released text messages between the congressman and a former aide generated something new: bipartisan calls for his resignation. The New York Times highlighted some of Gonzales’ GOP colleagues who now believe he needs to go.
‘Resign!’ wrote Representative Lauren Boebert, a hard-right Republican from Colorado, in a social media post that included images of the text messages. Representative Anna Paulina Luna, a Florida Republican on the House Oversight Committee, urged colleagues to condemn Mr. Gonzales for ‘asking for explicit photos’ of a member of his staff. … Representative Nancy Mace, Republican of South Carolina, also said Mr. Gonzales should resign immediately instead of ‘campaigning like nothing happened.’
A variety of other GOP officials, including Texas Reps. Chip Roy and Brandon Gill, stopped short of calling for Gonzales’ ouster, but they urged him to end his re-election campaign in light of the allegations.
The underlying scandal reached new heights last week when The San Antonio Express-News, Gonzales’ hometown newspaper, reported on a text message from Regina Santos-Aviles, a former aide to the congressman, who said she had an extramarital affair with Gonzales. Santos-Aviles died by suicide last year.....
Pressed for answers on Monday, House Speaker Mike Johnson conceded that the underlying allegations are “serious,” adding that he’s urged Gonzales to address the controversy “in an appropriate way with his constituents.” The Louisiana Republican did not, however, join the list of members calling on Gonzales to step down, concluding, “It’s too early for anybody to prejudge any of that, but we’ll see how it develops.”
Johnson is hardly a dispassionate observer. His House Republican Conference was already shrinking when, earlier this month, the GOP majority in the chamber was reduced to a one-vote margin. If Gonzales were to resign, his party’s advantage would hardly exist at all, and the Republicans’ ability to move legislation would largely come to an end, at least for a few months.
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