U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, on Monday announced that he will retire from Congress amid an investigation into his behavior with more than one of his staffers and a bipartisan move by the House of Representatives to expel him from the Congress. File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo
U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, said he will resign his seat in Congress after admitting that he had an affair with a former aide who died by suicide.
Several members of Congress, across party lines, had said they were going to pursue votes to throw both Gonzales and Democratic U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., out of the House of Representatives over allegations they had sexual relationships with members of their staffs.
Swalwell on Monday, after a weekend of ratcheting up calls for him to resign, decided to leave Congress after already having suspended his campaign for governor of California, as well.
“There is a season for everything and God has a plan for us all,” Gonzales said in a statement posted to X.
“When Congress returns tomorrow, I will file my retirement from office,” he said. “It has been my privilege to serve the great people of Texas.”
The House Ethics Committee on March 5 opened an investigation into an alleged affair he had with a woman on his staff who later died by suicide after lighting herself on fire.
Gonzales had for months denied that he’d had the affair but acknowledged the affair on a podcast, noting that both he and the staffer had been married to each other at the time of the affair and denied that he had anything to do with her death.
The next day, after a Republican primary which was going to lead to a runoff for the nomination, Gonzales pulled out of the race “after deep reflection and with the support of my loving family.”
Gonzales pulled resigned from Congress just hours after Swalwell resigned over investigations into his own inappropriate relationship with a staffer, as well as other allegations of sexual misconduct and abuse by multiple women.
The Congressional investigations into both Gonzales and Swalwell both will end when they officially retire from the Congress because the House Ethics Committee only has jurisdiction against people currently serving in the House of Representatives.
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U.S. President Donald Trump departs the White House en route to Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday. Photo by Olivier Douliery/UPI | License Photo
