Embattled GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales announces he’s stepping down from Congress

By Sarah Ferris, CNN

(CNN) — Embattled Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales announced Monday that he would step down from Congress, just days before he faced the possibility of a high-stakes vote that could have made him the seventh member to ever be expelled from the House.

The Texas Republican said he planned to “file my retirement from office” on Tuesday, which GOP leadership sources confirmed to CNN meant that he would resign. Gonzales had been under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for having a relationship with a former senior aide in his congressional office.

It was not immediately clear when the resignation would take effect. Gonzales and Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell have both been under fierce pressure by their House colleagues to resign after allegations that they had sexual relationships with people who had worked for them. Swalwell announced his own resignation minutes before Gonzales.

Those two resignations in quick succession Monday night amounted to a stunning flurry of accountability, and a sudden turn in a months-long saga for the Texas Republican. Though Gonzales had faced calls from his own party leadership to abandon his reelection bid, he had until Monday been able to remain in his job.

House GOP leaders knew they couldn’t afford to lose his vote and had privately acknowledged that losing him would hurt their voting margin, making it much harder to accomplish Trump’s agenda. (Johnson has not been in favor of expelling members in the past, which he has said required a complete investigation by the House Ethics Committee.)

But the calculation inside the GOP began to change as Democrats appeared increasingly likely to back expulsion for their own member, Swalwell, as he faced allegations of sexual misconduct, including from a former aide.

Many of the most vocal lawmakers — including Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, who had notably called to expel Gonzales even though it would hurt the GOP’s margins — are also involved in Congress’ ongoing investigation into how the federal government mishandled the investigation into serial abuser Jeffrey Epstein.

The dramatic push for resignations marked a stunning moment on Capitol Hill.

During the late 2010s amid the #MeToo movement, Democrats pressured members of their own party, such as Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota and Rep. John Conyers, to resign. Republicans pressured their own members, like Reps. Blake Farenthold of Texas and Trent Franks of Arizona, around the same time. All faced accusations of sexual misconduct.

As the allegations against Swalwell unfolded, behind the scenes, a plan had emerged for a woman from each party, Democratic Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández of New Mexico and GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, to each draft an expulsion measure to force separate removal votes targeting the two members. The GOP representative’s measure would target Swalwell, while the Democrat’s would target Gonzales.

Their idea was for both parties to lose a member — which would mean no change in Speaker Mike Johnson’s fragile majority. In reality, however, GOP and Democratic leaders were not in favor of expulsion votes, which they feared would set a concerning precedent in the House, where only six members have ever been expelled before.

Gonzales had already lost support from GOP leaders, though they did not call on him to resign from Congress immediately. Instead, they called for him to withdraw from his election, which he did.

“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,” the congressman said on X.

Gonzales had acknowledged an affair with a former staffer, a violation of House rules. The former staffer later died by suicide.

Then last week, the San Antonio Express-News published previously unreported texts that Gonzales allegedly sent the political director of his campaign in June 2020, during his first run for Congress.

The texts, as published by the Express-News, included Gonzales asking that staffer “What kind of panties do you wear?,” repeatedly soliciting nude photos from her, and describing how he wanted to have sex with her. That alleged conduct was separate from the affair; the staffer who received the texts told the San Antonio Express-News the relationship never became physical.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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