House

Tony Gonzales says he’ll ‘file my retirement,’ following Swalwell announcing resignation from House

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by Emily Brooks - 04/13/26 6:50 PM ET

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by Emily Brooks - 04/13/26 6:50 PM ET

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Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) said Monday that he will “file my retirement from office” when the House is back in session Tuesday, an announcement that came just an hour after Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) said he would resign from Congress.

Both congressmen were facing growing calls for resignation or expulsion based on allegations of sexual misconduct.

“There is a season for everything and God has a plan for us all. When Congress returns tomorrow, I will file my retirement from office. It has been my privilege to serve the great people of Texas,” Gonzales said on social media.

It was not immediately clear whether Gonzales would resign from Congress. He had already announced he would end his bid for reelection last month after he admitted to an affair with a staffer who later died by suicide.

Furor over Gonzales had died down after he ended his reelection campaign but bubbled back up in wake of sexual misconduct allegations against Swalwell that were reported in multiple news outlets Friday. The San Francisco Chronicle published accusations from an unnamed former aide who said Swalwell sexually assaulted her on two occasions. Shortly afterward, CNN reported three other women making separate allegations of sexual misconduct.

Multiple members in both parties said they would vote in favor of expelling both men.

After he ended his reelection bid, new allegations that Gonzales had sent sexually explicit text messages to a campaign staffer had emerged last week in a San Antonio Express-News report.

Earlier this year, the Express-News reported that Gonzales had an affair with his district director, Regina Ann Santos-Aviles, who later died by suicide. Text messages said to be extracted from Santos-Aviles’s phone and provided by her widower to media outlets, including The Hill, appeared to show Gonzales soliciting sexual material from Santos-Aviles as she said he was going too far.

Gonzales admitted to the affair, which sparked an Ethics Committee investigation in the House and led to him effectively ending his reelection bid, but he had said he would stay in Congress through the end of his term.

Updated at 7:02 p.m. EDT

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