Ernest Anthony Gonzales II (born October 10, 1980) is an American politician and United States Navy veteran who served as the U.S. representative for Texas's 23rd congressional district from 2021 until his resignation in April 2026. He is a member of the Republican Party.
A moderate Republican, Gonzales was censured by the Texas Republican Party in 2023 for voting in favor of the Respect for Marriage Act and the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. He is also one of 18 Republicans who voted against Jim Jordan's nomination for Speaker of the House all three times, and the only Republican to have voted against the House rules package afterwards. Gonzales's votes prompted several conservative primary challengers in 2024, most notably YouTuber Brandon Herrera, who forced a runoff after Gonzales received less than 50% of the vote. He won the runoff election with 50.7% of the vote.
In 2026, Gonzales initially ran for re-election. He faced and denied allegations of a sexual affair with a staffer who had later killed herself by self-immolation. After failing to secure more than 50% of the vote in the primary on March 3, he was set to face Brandon Herrera in a runoff scheduled for May 2026. On March 4, Gonzales admitted to the affair, dropping his re-election campaign amid pressure from party leadership the following day. On April 13, 2026, he resigned, effective the following day.
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Early life and education
Gonzales was raised in San Antonio, Texas. He earned an Associate of Arts from Chaminade University of Honolulu, a Bachelor of Science from Excelsior University, a graduate certificate in legislative studies from Georgetown University, and a Master of Arts from American Public University. He is a PhD candidate in international development at the University of Southern Mississippi.
Early career
From 1999 to 2019, Gonzales served in the United States Navy, retiring with the rank of master chief petty officer. A trained Cryptologist Interpretive (CTI), Gonzales was deployed as aircrew in VQ EP-3Es to support operations in Iraq and Afghanistan receiving an air medal for his service. He was also stationed in Tampa, Florida; Pensacola, Florida; Kāneʻohe Bay; and San Antonio, and assigned to the United States Navy Office of Legislative Affairs.
Gonzales served as a Department of Defense fellow in the office of Senator Marco Rubio and also worked as an assistant professor of political science at the University of Maryland Global Campus.
U.S. House of Representatives
Elections
Gonzales ran for Texas's 23rd congressional district in the 2020 election. The seat was open, as three-term Republican incumbent Will Hurd did not seek reelection. In the Republican primary, Gonzales narrowly defeated Raul Reyes after a recount. During the primary, Gonzales was endorsed by Hurd and President Donald Trump. In the November general election, Gonzales defeated Democratic nominee Gina Ortiz Jones. The result was considered an upset, as most forecasters believed that the Democrats were favored to flip the district after Hurd's retirement.
Gonzales ran for re-election in 2022, winning his primary with 78% of the vote and the general election with 55.87% against Democrat John Lira and Independent candidate Frank Lopez Jr.
Gonzales was reelected to a third term in 2024. Gonzales faced a strong primary challenge from Brandon Herrera. He won the Republican primary over his primary challenger Brandon Herrera by fewer than 400 votes with 50.6% of the ballots cast. To secure Gonzales's victory, several establishment-allied super PACs put more than $4 million in TV advertising. Herrera spent $1.3 million on TV ads compared to Gonzales's $1.9 million.
After facing down conservative opposition over his votes in Congress, Gonzales garnered 62.3% of the vote in the general election, defeating Democratic challenger Santos Limon by over 71,000 votes.
Gonzales ran for re-election in 2026, facing Herrera and three other challengers in the Republican primary. He again failed to achieve more than 50% of the vote in the primary, placing second to Herrera 41.8%–43.3%. With no candidates securing more than 50% of the vote in the primary, Gonzales was set to face Herrera in a runoff scheduled for May 2026.
After initially denying reports of an affair with a staffer who later committed suicide by self-immolation, Gonzales admitted to the affair on March 4. He ended his re-election campaign amid pressure from party leadership the following day.
Tenure
Gonzales voted against impeaching Trump after the events of January 6, 2021, saying that the nation needed to heal and that he looked forward to working with President Biden to do that.
Like all other Senate and House Republicans, Gonzales voted against the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.
On May 19, 2021, Gonzales was one of 35 Republicans to join all Democrats in voting to approve legislation to establish the January 6, 2021 commission meant to investigate the storming of the U.S. Capitol.
On March 4, 2023, the Texas Republican Party's executive committee censured Gonzales for failing to vote in line with the party positions, citing his decision to support the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and the Respect for Marriage Act (both in 2022) as well as his vote against a House rules packages passed after the contested 2023 Speaker election. Conservative representatives such as Matt Gaetz and Bob Good endorsed Brandon Herrera, a primary challenger to Gonzales for the 2024 election, whom Gonzales criticized during an appearance on CNN's State of the Union in April 2024. He called Republican hardliners "real scumbags" who "walk around with white hoods", and called his primary opponent a "neo-Nazi" and an "anarchist" intent on "burning the place down." This came after Gonzales voted in favor of three contentious foreign aid packages for Ukraine, Israel, and East Asia, all of which required bipartisan backing to move on.
On February 17, 2026, the San Antonio Express-News published text messages allegedly from Regina Ann Santos-Aviles, a political aide to Gonzales, to another staffer. In the text messages from April 2025, Santos-Aviles wrote that she had an affair with Gonzales in 2024.
According to her husband, Adrian Aviles, Santos-Aviles confessed to the affair on May 29, 2024, one day after Gonzales's victory in the 2024 Republican primary. Aviles told media outlets that his wife had a sexual relationship with Gonzales for two to three weeks before he caught her, and she admitted the affair. Following this, Aviles asked his wife to quit her job, but she refused. Aviles then confronted Gonzales and his campaign about the affair, which led to Santos-Aviles being treated like a pariah at work. The couple later separated, and Santos-Aviles fell into depression. Aviles stated that she threatened to kill herself in August 2025 but police arrived before she could, though they found "nothing of concern."
Committee assignments
Committee on Appropriations
Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies
Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies
Caucus memberships
Climate Solutions Caucus
Problem Solvers Caucus
Republican Study Committee
Party leadership
Assistant Republican Whip (2021–2026)
Political positions
Abortion
Gonzales describes himself as pro-life. He co-sponsored the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act of 2021 (H.R. 18), which aims to codify the Hyde Amendment banning federal funding for abortions.
Foreign policy
During the Russo-Ukrainian War, Gonzales signed a letter urging President Joe Biden to give F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.
Gonzales voted to support Israel following the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.
Gonzales proposed a new Iranian Campaign Service Medal for Operation Midnight Hammer for the pilots and support personnel of the aircraft involved. In June 2025 he filed H.R. 4254 Iranian Campaign Medal Act that expanded eligibility to the entire Twelve-Day War.
Gun rights
Gonzales supported amending the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act to remove a proposed red flag law provision. He and other House Republicans signed a letter that argued the provision would infringe on Second Amendment rights and allow "military judges and magistrates to issue military court gun confiscation orders."
After the Robb Elementary School shooting in Gonzales's congressional district, Gonzales voted for the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and cited his experience growing up in an abusive household (including an instance of his father threatening his mother with a gun) as his reason for supporting the act.
Immigration
Gonzales supports keeping Title 42 expulsion in place and, along with senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra arguing that the removal of Title 42 would encourage illegal immigration at the southern border.
In 2022, Gonzales argued that while the Remain in Mexico policy enacted by the Trump administration had flaws, it had been an effective strategy to prevent illegal immigration and asylum fraud and that repealing laws on illegal immigration and off-soil asylum processing had led to cases such as the trailer deaths in San Antonio earlier that year. In response to the repeal of the Remain in Mexico policy under Biden, Gonzales called for an increase in immigration judges to process asylum cases "in days, not years." He supports the expansion and simplification of work visas to reform legal immigration.
LGBT issues
On July 19, 2022, Gonzales and 46 other House Republicans voted for the Respect for Marriage Act, which repealed the Defense of Marriage Act. It would require each state to recognize any marriage performed in another state, and codify same-sex marriage and Obergefell v. Hodges into federal law. It was signed into law by President Biden on December 13, 2022.
Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023
Gonzales was among 71 House Republicans who voted against final passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023.
Personal life
Gonzales and his wife, Angel, have six children. Angel served as the treasurer and custodian of records for Gonzales's campaign. He is Catholic.