SAN ANTONIO — GOP Texas Rep. Tony Gonzales is dangerously near dropping his seat to a gun-fanatic YouTuber after the married pol refused to resign when a staffer burned herself to dying over their alleged affair.
Gonzales is within the largest combat of his political profession this week, dealing with an unsightly uphill main battle amid calls for he step down, plummeting social gathering help and a congressional ethics probe over his alleged extramarital tryst.
An ex-congressional staffer for Gonzales who now volunteers for challenger Brandon Herrera — “The AKA Man” with greater than 4 million on-line followers — advised The Put up on Sunday that voters have been “accomplished with Tony” even earlier than the affair allegations surfaced.
“I don’t really feel he was doing sufficient for the border disaster to cease that, the red-flag legal guidelines, after which the final straw was him voting for all of the LGBT stuff, same-sex marriage,” stated the previous aide, who labored for Gonzales at an workplace in a border county from 2021 to 2023.
Along with border points, the supply was referring to Gonzales backing “red-flag” crackdowns on gun consumers and greenlighting taxpayer-funded Delight occasions on US navy bases.
At an occasion in Corpus Christi on Friday, Gonzales, a father of six, bought booed by some attendees when President Trump briefly acknowledged him as one among a number of Republican candidates he endorsed who’re in search of re-election.
The Texas Republican defeated Herrera in a main runoff two years in the past by round 400 votes. The incumbent will no face off once more with the YouTuber and firearms fanatic Tuesday as an inside marketing campaign ballot discovered Gonzales trailing by 24 share factors, The Put up first reported.
The survey, commissioned by Herrera’s marketing campaign, confirmed the Republican challenger is backed by 45% of doubtless main voters, whereas Gonzales registered simply 21% help, adopted by former Rep. Francisco “Quico” Canseco and development govt Keith Barton, who’re tied at 4% every.
However one other 26% of potential GOP main voters remained undecided for the late February ballot, that means sufficient twenty third Congressional District Texans might break for Herrera to get him over the 50% threshold and keep away from one other runoff this cycle.
The largely rural district includes the border areas of west Texas, operating roughly 800 miles from San Antonio to El Paso. All however a handful of counties in it voted closely for Trump within the 2024 election.
Herrera has claimed that Gonzales’ “lies” about his alleged affair together with his married staffer, who had a baby, will let Democrats simply “flip a dependable Republican seat blue” if the three-term congressman prevails within the main.
Republicans at present maintain 218 seats to Democrats’ 214 within the Home due to vacancies involving resignations and deaths, placing their majority in peril for the 2026 midterm elections.
“What you’ve seen will not be all of the info,” Gonzales advised CNN reporter Manu Raju on Capitol Hill final Tuesday whereas evading questions on textual content messages that present tragic former staffer Regina Santos-Aviles admitted to an “affair” and the way Gonzales pressed her for “horny” pictures.
Greater than half a dozen of Gonzales’ Home Republican colleagues have referred to as on him to drop out of the race or resign from workplace over allegations he had an affair with Santos-Aviles, his regional director, in Could 2024 — 16 months earlier than she self-immolated within the yard of her Uvalde dwelling.
The 35-year-old mom of 1 advised first responders earlier than she died Sept. 14 that “she found her husband was dishonest on her together with her finest buddy, and in consequence, she poured gasoline on herself and set herself on hearth.”
Her widower, Adrian Aviles, and a former colleague of Santos-Aviles denied the declare when contacted by The Put up. Different police data and an post-mortem notice that Santos-Aviles had been ingesting on the time of the tragedy and taking “antidepressants.”
Home Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has referred to as the accusations towards Gonzales “very severe” and urged him privately final week “to handle” the difficulty “immediately and head on together with his constituents.”
The Workplace of Congressional Conduct started probing the purported affair in November however received’t be capable of refer findings to the Home Ethics Committee for potential punishments till after the first election.
A rep for Gonzales didn’t reply to a Put up request for remark.
