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The Blast - July 25, 2025 [1]
['The Texas Tribune']
Date: 2025-07
DEFIANT CAPRIGLIONE ADMITS AFFAIR, DENIES ABORTIONS
A former mistress of retiring state Rep. Giovanni Capriglione says the Southlake Republican has paid for abortions. He admits the affair — but denies the rest of her story.
The conservative site Current Revolt published an interview this morning with a former exotic dancer, identified as Alex Grace, who says she began a long-term affair with Capriglione around 2004 that lasted for 17 or 18 years and ended in 2019 or 2020. Capriglione, who was first elected in 2012, announced his reelection campaign last month but dropped out on Tuesday, the day before rumors about a sex scandal broke on social media.
In a statement to The Blast, Capriglione acknowledged that he had, years ago, “selfishly had an affair” and he was not proud of it.
“Thank God my wife and family forgave me, and we moved past it and have the strong marriage we do today,” Capriglione said. “Their grace, and God’s, is something for which I am grateful every day. I’m a different man than I was because of it.”
The rest of Grace’s allegations, including that Capriglione had “funded several abortions for his own personal gain,” are “categorically false and easily disproven,” he said. Neither Grace nor Capriglione offered evidence to support their claims.
Grace also alleged he had divulged his sexual fantasies to her, once made a payment drop at a Chuck E. Cheese and took annual trips to Amsterdam’s Red Light District at his wife’s “direction.” Capriglione denied ever going to Amsterdam.
Elected in the tea party wave of 2012, Capriglione entered the House as a critic of the Republican establishment but now serves in House leadership as chair of the Delivery of Government Efficiency Committee. He’s become one of the most prolific lawmakers in the House, passing several priority bills, such as the abortion “trigger ban” in 2021.
Grace said Capriglione cut ties with her after she voiced her anger about his political stances and encouraged him to “stick to who you are.”
“I wanted him to stand for what he truly believed,” she said in the interview. “If you are using abortions for your personal gain, if you are using women for your personal gain, why announce to the world that this isn’t who you are?”
Asked how she would know about the alleged abortions, Grace refused to elaborate.
“I think on this one you’re just going to have to go with my word,” she said.
Capriglione said he had “never, nor would I ever, pay for an abortion.”
Grace, now a “political news curator,” admitted that her reasons for coming forward are “a little political.”
“He now has the power to influence the lives of so many people and potentially in a massively negative way,” she said.
In his 400-word statement, Capriglione suggested Current Revolt’s story could be linked to the DOGE Committee’s questioning of former Superior HealthPlan CEO Mark Sanders, who was fired after he told Capriglione and fellow committee members that his company had hired private investigators to target patients, journalists and lawmakers.
“I had no idea the depths to which they would sink, their appalling gutter politics, or the lies and defamation they would spread,” Capriglione said.
So far, state Rep. Briscoe Cain, an anti-leadership Republican from Deer Park, has called on Capriglione to resign and said it looks like he broke the law, presumably referring to the alleged abortion payments. House Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, has not returned a request for comment.
Joe Pojman, executive director of the leadership-supportive Texas Alliance for Life, posted a statement of support for Capriglione.
“Shame on others who exploit that for cheap political gain,” he said.
Luke Macias, Capriglione’s consultant in 2012 and 2014, who has since campaigned against him and is aligned with anti-leadership efforts, encouraged others to pray for their political enemies.
“Don’t celebrate sin,” Macias said.
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