The Office of Congressional Conduct has completed its investigation into Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) over an alleged affair with a congressional staffer who set herself on fire and died, but the findings are locked in a procedural holding pattern. Because Gonzales faces a Republican primary on March 3, the OCC cannot transmit its report to the House Ethics Committee under a 60-day pre-election blackout window.

The timing means voters in one of Texas's most closely watched primaries will head to the polls without knowing what investigators found.

NBC News reported Friday afternoon that the OCC wrapped up its work. The investigation centered on Gonzales's relationship with Regina Santos-Aviles, his former regional district director, who last year poured gasoline on herself outside her home and set herself on fire. She died the following day at a hospital in San Antonio. Police ruled her death a suicide, as Washington Examiner reports.

What the investigation sought

A letter dated November 25, 2025, sent from the OCC to Adrian Aviles, the widower of Santos-Aviles, requested a sweeping range of communications. Investigators asked for "emails, text messages, instant messages, and voicemails" spanning from January 2023 to September 2025. The letter also indicated investigators sought to interview people involved in the matter.

The scope of that request covers nearly three years of potential contact between the congressman and his staffer, a period that overlaps with Gonzales's 2024 primary, in which he narrowly defeated Second Amendment activist Brandon Herrera for the Republican nomination. Herrera is challenging him again on March 3.

Allegation, denial, and a $300,000 demand

Earlier this week, Adrian Aviles told the San Antonio Express-News that Gonzales carried on an affair with his wife. A former Gonzales staffer separately shared a text message from Santos-Aviles with the same outlet in which she acknowledged the relationship.

Gonzales has denied the affair. He went further, claiming publicly that Adrian Aviles is blackmailing him. To support that claim, Gonzales posted on X a note from Aviles's lawyer requesting a $300,000 settlement. Aviles responded promptly, denying the blackmail allegation.

No legal filing has been cited by either side. The competing accusations sit unresolved, with the ethics investigation's conclusions sealed behind the 60-day rule.

A frozen report and a live primary

This is where the procedural reality collides with political consequence. The OCC exists to investigate members of Congress and refer findings to the House Ethics Committee for potential action. When it concludes an investigation but cannot transmit the report, the public gets the worst of both worlds: the cloud of an investigation with none of the clarity a completed report might provide.

Gonzales is a three-term congressman in a district that already gave him a scare in 2024. Herrera came within striking distance last cycle. The ethics probe, even without a published conclusion, reshapes the dynamics of this race. Voters now weigh allegations, denials, and an investigation they cannot read.

The blackout rule exists for a defensible reason: to prevent ethics investigations from being weaponized as last-minute election interference. But when the underlying facts involve a woman's death and a sitting congressman's conduct with a subordinate, the procedural shield starts to feel less like protection and more like concealment.

The human cost underneath the politics

Beneath the ethics investigation, the primary jockeying, and the back-and-forth accusations on social media, a woman is dead. Regina Santos-Aviles worked for Gonzales. She set herself on fire. Whatever the full story turns out to be, that fact demands gravity from everyone involved, including the institutions now sitting on the findings.

Adrian Aviles has called for accountability. Gonzales has called it blackmail. The OCC has its conclusions but cannot share them. And in less than two weeks, Republican voters in Texas will make their choice with an incomplete picture.

The Washington Examiner reached out to Gonzales's office for comment.

The report will eventually reach the Ethics Committee. Whether it reaches the public before March 3 is another question entirely. For now, the silence speaks loudest.