House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told reporters that Rep. Tony Gonzales‘s (R-TX) constituents would be the judges, after the Texas representative’s alleged explicit text messages with a former, now deceased, staffer were revealed.
“I’ve said to him publicly and privately, he’s got to address that directly and head on with his constituents,” Johnson said to Capitol Hill reporters Wednesday. “There’s a primary there in less than a week, these things will play out.”
Johnson’s comments come as several House Republicans have called on Gonzales to resign or abandon his reelection bid over the allegations he had an affair with a staffer and sent her late-night explicit text messages asking for sexual images. The staffer, Regina Santos-Aviles, died in 2025 after setting herself on fire, with authorities ruling her death a suicide.
Reps. Tim Burchett (R-TN), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Kevin Kiley (R-CA), Nancy Mace (R-SC), and Thomas Massie (R-KY) have all called on Gonzales to resign.
Gonzales has denied the allegations and told reporters on Tuesday, “I will not resign.” He also told CNN that “what you have seen are not all the facts.”
The third-term Texas congressman is up for reelection in November in his border district. He is facing a primary challenge from several candidates, including from firearm manufacturer Brandon Herrera, whom Gonzales bested by 1.2% in a 2024 primary runoff. Herrera sports endorsements from Reps. Chip Roy (R-TX), Eli Crane (R-AZ), Mary Miller (R-IL), and Boebert.
Mace also filed a resolution in the House Ethics Committee, asking them to publicly release all reports of their sexual harassment investigations into members of Congress.
“Tony Gonzales is just the tip of the iceberg,” Mace wrote on X. “There is no place for sexual harassment or unwelcome sexual advances in the House of Representatives. And we won’t let the Washington establishment keep protecting its own. End of story.”
TONY GONZALES WON’T RESIGN AFTER EXPLICIT TEXT MESSAGES WITH DEAD STAFFER EXPOSED
Johnson has called the allegations against Gonzales “very serious” and has maintained that the chamber has to “allow the due process here to play out.”
“They’re obviously very serious,” Johnson said earlier this week about the text messages. “And I’ve spoken with him and told him he’s got to address that in the appropriate way with his constituents and all of that. So it’s too early for anybody to prejudge any of that.”