WASHINGTON — Ahead of an expulsion vote, Texas Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales said he plans to “file my retirement from office” when the House returns on Tuesday — more than a month after he faced allegations of an affair with his staff member who later died by suicide.

It’s unclear whether Gonzales, who already dropped his reelection bid last month, meant resignation effective immediately. Calls to his San Antonio, Fort Stockton and Washington, D.C., offices, were not answered.

“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,” Gonzales wrote on X. “It has been my privilege to serve the great people of Texas.”

Gonzales, 45, is married with six children. He said previously that the relationship with married staff member Regina Santos-Aviles, who died by suicide last year, was a “mistake” and a “lapse in judgment.”

The Ethics Committee opened an investigation into Gonzales in March. House rules prohibit members from engaging in a “sexual relationship” with a staffer.

Earlier this month, a second staffer came forward with texts from Gonzales asking her for nude photos, according to reports by the San Antonio Express-News.

Gonzales is in his third term representing Texas’ 23rd District, an area that encompasses roughly 800 miles of the Mexican border, the largest border district in the nation. The moderate Republican set his sights on immigration overhauls and in the past rebuked hard-line GOP proposals.

He sits on the Appropriations and Homeland Security committees. He was one of 14 House Republicans to cross party lines to vote for the measure negotiated by Texas’ senior senator, John Cornyn, following a 2022 mass shooting at a school in Gonzales’ district in Uvalde.

Gonzales’ announcement came less than an hour after Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., announced his resignation following similar sexual misconduct allegations by staff members. As both Democratic and Republican lawmakers called for Swalwell’s ouster, they also turned their sights toward Gonzales.

The back-to-back resignation announcements from a Democrat and Republican means the chamber’s margin is effectively unchanged.

Reps. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., and Teresa Leger Fernandez, D-N.M., both said they would introduce resolutions to expel Gonzales and Swalwell when the House returned Tuesday.

“This was the right thing to do,” Luna said in response to Gonzales’ announcement. “We have successfully drained part of the swamp this week with the resignation of two very corrupt members of Congress.”

Though it was unclear from his statement when he planned to leave office, under Texas law, the governor is empowered to call a special election to fill a House vacancy. The timeline is not specified, other than to stipulate that the special election will be held as soon as possible after the vacancy occurs.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, drew criticism for the long lag time in scheduling the special election to fill the seat of the late Democratic Rep. Sylvester Turner. The election was held in November, eight months after Turner’s March 2025 death. Then there was a runoff since no candidate took the majority. Rep. Christian Menefee, Turner’s successor, was sworn in in early February.

Leger Fernandez said she will give Gonzales until 2 p.m. Tuesday to resign or she will move forward with his expulsion resolution. “He better write that resignation ‘effective immediately,'"she said.

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., and a handful of other members have also been calling for Reps. Cory Mills, R-Fla., and Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., to resign. Both are also facing ethics investigations.

“Two down. Two to go,” Mace said.

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(Daniela Altimari contributed to this report.)

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