Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) announced Thursday he will not seek re-election, dropping out of his Republican primary runoff after mounting pressure from House Speaker Mike Johnson and the entire House GOP leadership team.

The scandal centers on an admitted affair with Regina Santos-Aviles, a 35-year-old aide in his Uvalde district office, who later died by suicide. Gonzales had publicly denied the affair as recently as November before finally confessing on a radio show the morning after his primary.

Text messages obtained by the San Antonio Express-News — shared by Santos-Aviles's widower — showed Gonzales pressing her for explicit photos, with messages she reportedly described as going "too far." The story broke wide open on the eve of early voting.

Gonzales was forced into a runoff against Brandon Herrera, the YouTube gun-rights personality known as "the AK Guy," finishing roughly 42% to Herrera's 43% — a collapse driven largely by election-day voters reacting to the late-breaking scandal coverage.

The House Ethics Committee launched a formal investigation into Gonzales's conduct, adding institutional weight to the political pressure that ultimately ended his campaign.

Leadership stopped short of demanding his resignation from his congressional seat — a deliberate calculation to protect the razor-thin House Republican majority from a potentially competitive special election in the 23rd District.

The 23rd District — 27 counties stretching 800 miles of the Texas-Mexico border — is now an open seat, making it one of the most closely watched congressional battlegrounds of the 2026 cycle, with Herrera as the presumptive Republican nominee heading into the May 26 runoff.

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Travis County DA José Garza is facing renewed criticism after career criminal Caleb Anthony Jenkins was charged with murdering a 25-year-old father of five outside an Austin 7-Eleven.
Jenkins had accumulated at least three separate gun charges dating back to 2022, all of which were dismissed or declined for prosecution by Garza's office.
Jenkins was also arrested on a domestic violence charge in 2023, failed to appear in court, was re-arrested, released again after a bond increase, and ultimately went on to allegedly commit murder.
Garza, who had no prior prosecutorial experience before taking office, was elected in 2020 with significant financial backing from a George Soros-aligned PAC that contributed $652,000 and spent nearly $1 million on campaign advertising.
Dennis Farris, president of the Austin Police Retired Officer's Association, previously accused Garza's prosecutors of acting "more like defense attorneys than they are prosecutors" and said victims were no longer being consulted before plea bargains were offered.
The family of Doug Cantor, killed in the 2021 Sixth Street mass shooting in Austin, publicly accused Garza of slow-walking the gunman's prosecution and putting the case on the "back burner."
Multiple victims' families have described Garza's office as unresponsive, secretive about case decisions, and indifferent to their need for justice.
Critics argue the pattern of declining to prosecute repeat offenders is not administrative oversight but a deliberate ideological commitment to decarceration and leniency.
Soros has funded similar progressive DA campaigns across the country, including in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Chicago, with many of those jurisdictions drawing comparable criticism over rising crime and lax prosecution.
Garza's office did not respond to requests for comment on the Jenkins case, and the DA has not publicly addressed why the prior gun charges against Jenkins were repeatedly dismissed.
Read More: https://patriot.tv/soros-puppet-da-went-soft-on-a-career-criminal-who-then-murdered-a-father-of-five/


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The announcement at the State of the Union that JD Vance would be heading up a task force to uncover fraud in America was lowkey, but it represented the most potentially consequential midterm election event second only to passing the SAVE America Act.

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California hasn’t elected a Republican governor in nearly two decades. But thanks to the state’s “jungle primary” system, 2026 may present a once-in-a-generation opportunity to flip Sacramento red — if conservatives understand the strategy and execute it correctly.


In this episode, we break down how two Republican candidates currently leading in the primary could both advance to the general election — not by consolidating early, but by maintaining parity. With Democrats splintered across multiple uninspiring contenders, the math creates a narrow but very real pathway to a Republican vs. Republican showdown in November.


This isn’t about intra-party fighting. It’s about discipline. It’s about turnout. And it’s about understanding how California’s top-two primary system can be leveraged to produce a general election where Democrats are locked out entirely.


We’ll explain how the numbers work, why vote-splitting on the Left could be the deciding factor, and what grassroots activists, donors, and everyday voters can do right now to maximize the odds of making history.


If Republicans play this right, California could witness something few thought possible: a guaranteed Republican governor in the most populous state in America.


This episode is your strategic briefing on how to capitalize on the moment.


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The SAVE America Act must pass. Without it, Democrats will be able to establish de facto single-party rule indefinitely.

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We are pleased to announce that we're consolidating the various podcasts that JD and Tammy Rucker do regarding politics to the NOQ Report Podcast! Please be sure to find us and subscribe there. Easiest way is to find us at noqreport.com

Yesterday's tease that Donald Trump is starting his own social network in two or three months may end up being a good thing IF it's something special. If it's just an alternative to Facebook and Twitter that's MAGA-friendly, then it's not only not necessary but could actually be an embarrassment. He must either build something special or go to Gab or Parler.

The Second Amendment Preservation Act of Newton County, Missouri, is the model that every freedom-loving American should use to press their own counties to action. The Second Amendment is under attack now more than every. We can make better moves at the local level than the national level right now.

There's a false narrative out there that is, unfortunately, coming from conservative news outlets. Recall efforts against Gavin Newsom are on target, but we're not out of the woods yet. It's crunch time to get another half-million signatures if we're going to recall him.