WASHINGTON ― Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) won’t give up his seat in Congress over his apparent affair with a staffer who died by suicide last year.

“I am not going to resign. I work every day for the people of Texas,” Gonzales told CNN’s Manu Raju at the Capitol on Tuesday.

Several Republicans have called on Gonzales to resign or suspend his reelection campaign after late-night text messages obtained by HuffPost and other outlets showed Gonzales in 2024 pressing a younger staffer for “a sexy pic.”

According to the staffer’s husband, she and Gonzales wound up having an affair.

The staffer fell into a depressive spiral after her husband discovered the relationship, her husband has said, leading both to their estrangement and the collapse of her career. She set herself on fire and died of her injuries in September.

Gonzales has maintained he didn’t have an affair, but didn’t deny the texts were real on Tuesday.

“What you’ve seen is not all the facts,” Gonzales said.

Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) have said Gonzales should immediately resign from his seat, while other Republicans have suggested he ought to quit running for office. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has said the matter is serious and that Gonzales owes the public an explanation.

Gonzales has reportedly been referred to the Office of Congressional Ethics for an investigation, which could lead to another probe by the House Ethics Committee, which could then recommend punishment such as censure or expulsion.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), who has said Gonzales should drop his campaign, wouldn’t say Tuesday if Gonzales had explained himself.

“I’m not gonna litigate this in the public square,” Roy told HuffPost. “Let’s let due process play out here a little bit, and let the ethics committee do its job.”

Roy and other far-right House Republicans had already endorsed Gonzales’ primary opponent, a right-wing gun influencer named Brandon Herrera. The Texas primary election is happening next week.

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