U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio, admitted Wednesday to having an affair with a staffer who later died by suicide, after initially denying the allegation.

Speaking on conservative talk show host Joe Pags’ show the day after he was forced into a runoff in his primary, Gonzales called the affair a “mistake” and a “lapse in judgment.”

“I take full responsibility for those actions,” Gonzales said. “Since then, I have reconciled with my wife, Angel. I’ve asked God to forgive me, which he has. And my faith is as strong as ever.”

Gonzales is now subject to an investigation from the House Ethics Committee, announced Wednesday, to look into whether he “engaged in sexual misconduct towards an individual employed in his congressional office” and “discriminated unfairly by dispensing special favors or privileges.”

The third-term representative said he looks forward to the committee’s probe.

“I appreciate the opportunity to provide all the facts and all the details that lead to exactly what occurred in the entire situation,” he said.

Regina Santos-Aviles, a former Gonzales staffer who worked in his Uvalde office, died in 2025 after setting herself on fire. Gonzales denied rumors of an affair between the two when asked about them at the Texas Tribune Festival in November, saying they were “completely untruthful”.

The San Antonio Express-News reported on the eve of early voting last month that Santos-Aviles had told a fellow ex-staffer of the affair, publishing a screenshot of a text sent by Santos-Aviles to the ex-staffer in which she said she had an “affair with our boss.”

??Further texts later came to light — shared by Santos-Aviles’ widower — that showed Gonzales, who is married with six children, asking his staffer to send a “sexy pic” and making other explicit comments, despite her refusal and assertion that Gonzales’ messages were “going too far.”

Gonzales had ?declined to answer questions about the alleged affair until Wednesday, in the meantime blaming his primary opponent, Brandon Herrera, for politicizing the issue and accusing Adrian Aviles, his ex-staffer’s widow, of trying to blackmail him. And he maintained that he would not resign his office.

Gonzales’ admittal comes after he was forced into a primary runoff against Herrera, a gun rights activist and YouTuber who has criticized Gonzales on both policy and personal fronts. Herrera finished first in the March 3 primary, but neither candidate crossed the 50% vote threshold needed to avoid a runoff.

The affair was reported during the early voting period, and many of Gonzales’ colleagues, including House GOP leadership, have said his political fate is up to the voters in his district, which spans from El Paso County to San Antonio and runs along much of the southwestern border in West Texas.

During the early voting period, Gonzales captured 45% of the vote to Herrera’s 40%, according to unofficial returns. On election day, when the details of the affair had fully come to light, Herrera received 49% to Gonzales’ 36%, an 18-point swing that suggests the San Antonio Republican could face an uphill climb in overcoming the scandal.

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.