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MAGA Lawmaker Supports GOP Colleague's Reelection Amid Affair Allegations
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MAGA Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) defended his colleague Rep. Tony Gonzales’ (R-Texas) decision not to resign or suspend his reelection campaign amid involvement in an apparent affair with a staffer who died by suicide last year.
“He’s not been indicted for anything. Does it look good? No. I don’t like the appearance of it,” Nehls told a gaggle of reporters Wednesday. “He’s got a problem here. Don’t get me wrong, the optics are horrible, but I would in no way ever resign, right now.”
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Nehls’s comments set him apart from other Republicans calling on Gonzales to resign over sexually explicit messages sent in 2024 between the lawmaker and his late staffer, Regina Santos-Aviles. One message appears to show Gonzales asking Santos-Aviles for a “sexy pic.”
Santos-Aviles’ widower, Adrian Aviles, said their marriage fell apart after he found out about the affair between his wife and Gonzales. He also said his wife sank into depression before she took her own life last year by setting herself on fire.
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“Look, I’m not saying he’s the one that went out there and did it himself, and I’m not saying that, but, yeah, he played a role in it,” Aviles told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Wednesday. “He predatorized my wife, and he pushed her to the sense of having an affair. I mean, I made that evident in the messages that are released.”
Gonzales, who is married with six kids, has denied the affair, claiming, “what you’ve seen is not all the facts.”
He currently represents Texas’ 23rd Congressional District, the state’s largest, and is running a high-stakes campaign against YouTuber Brandon Herrera, also known as “The AK Guy” online, whonarrowly lost in the 2024 election.
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Herrera slammed his opponent, claiming that Gonzales had a “taxpayer funded affair with a married staffer, which led to her death by self-immolation.”
Nehls, however, said that “accusations aren’t enough” to call for Gonzales’ resignation or for him to suspend his campaign.
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“If he does that, then you got to give the gavel to Hakeem Jeffries and I’m sure the Democrats would love that. I would love that. But no, I wouldn’t do that for any reason,” Nehls said.
“But aren’t some things bigger than politics?” CNN’s Manu Raju asked.