EXCLUSIVE — Rep. Tony Gonzales’s (R-TX) primary challenger is calling on House GOP leadership to pressure the scandal-tarred incumbent into exiting the 2026 Texas race.
Brandon Herrera, a Second Amendment activist and social media influencer, told the Washington Examiner in an interview that Gonzales’s behavior was unacceptable and a “resignation-level offense.”
“I understand the hesitation to go through the cluster that would be a special election in Texas and with a thin majority,” said Herrera. “But I think the bare minimum, I think House leadership should pressure him to at least suspend his campaign, because I don’t think a man like that can continue to represent the district, not with his behavior.”
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and other members of the GOP leadership have yet to call on Gonzales to step aside. Johnson initially told reporters the allegations were troubling and that he would talk to Gonzales, but it was “too early to prejudge.”
“It has been reported that the Office of Congressional Conduct is investigating, as it has been for some time, and what we do here is we allow all the facts to play out. There is a sitting Democrat in the House right now who’s under indictment by [the Department of] Justice for stealing funds to pay for her campaign,” Johnson said, referring to Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) during a recent CBS interview. “No one is calling for her resignation or her ouster from the House. We allow due process to play out. And what we’re doing here is exactly what we do in every scenario.”
Gonzales is defiant about not resigning, even as the scandal grows over his relationship with a former staffer who subsequently died by setting herself on fire last year. The staffer, Regina Santos-Aviles, was rumored to have engaged in an affair with Gonzales at the time of her death. Gonzales denied the allegations, but text messages made public by Santos-Aviles’s one-time husband show the congressman sent inappropriate, late-night text messages to the staffer.
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The messages show Gonzales asking Santos-Aviles for sexual images and peppering her with inappropriate questions of a sexual nature. The revelation spurred calls for Gonzales’s resignation from both Republicans and Democrats in Congress.
“A lot of people, in the beginning, didn’t believe it,” said Herrera. “I didn’t believe it either, because it sounded like something that was too far-fetched for House of Cards, but it’s very it’s quickly become clear that that’s what happened, and it’s the most recent text messages and the really releases from the husband have made this completely undeniable.”
Gonzales was elected to represent Texas’s 23rd Congressional District in 2020. The seat, which spans a large chunk of the U.S.-Mexico border, was purple at the time, but has trended red as Latino voters have been swayed to the GOP by President Donald Trump. Trump won it by 15 percentage points in 2024. Its borders are set to only change marginally after a mid-decade redistricting pushed through by Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) last year.
During his tenure in Congress, Gonzales has staked out moderate positions on guns and immigration. Herrera said those positions mean Gonzales isn’t a good fit for the seat, which is why Herrera challenged Gonzales in the GOP primary in 2024. He lost that race by roughly 400 votes in a runoff after neither candidate won an outright majority in the initial primary.
Herrera said he’s relying on the policy contrast between himself and Gonzales rather than the scandal on the campaign trail.
“In person and in the town halls that we do across the district, I’ve actually never once spoken about this sort of thing,” said Herrera. “It’s not something I’ve ever used as an attack piece, as a hit piece on the campaign trail, I talked exclusively about the issues … Tony’s failures to represent West Texas conservative values.”
Yet Herrera admits the scandal cannot be ignored because it will affect keeping the seat in GOP hands if Gonzales is the nominee.
“The man has completely abused his seat of power, and even the most die-hard, red conservatives, I think, would have a hard time holding their nose and voting for a man like that in the general,” said Herrera.
Despite the scandal and the increasing calls for Gonzales to resign, Herrera said no one from the White House, House GOP leadership, or its associated campaign arm has reached out.
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“I’m looking forward to working with them to not only push forward the conservative agenda, but try to represent the district in the best way possible,” Herrera said. “No hard feelings, regardless of whether or not they supported me, it doesn’t change my values, and it doesn’t change my principles, and it doesn’t change how I plan to represent Texas.”
With Gonzlaes refusing to resign, voters will have the final say at the polls on March 3. If no candidate gets 50% of the vote, the top two will head to a runoff.
Rachel Schilke contributed to this article.
