How Much Is Ken Paxton Worth? A Look At The Scandal-Scarred MAGA Senate Candidate’s Finances

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has spent much of his political career under investigation, embroiled in scandal or at war with his own party. In 2026, he toppled incumbent U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in a Republican primary upset, pushing years of controversy into the national spotlight, including a 2023 impeachment trial on misconduct and bribery charges. The Texas Senate later acquitted him.

Paxton has built his brand as a champion of MAGA causes. As Texas AG, the self-described “loyal supporter of President Trump” sued to overturn the results of the 2020 election, agreed to assist the president with his mass deportation efforts and embraced the president’s signature election legislation, the SAVE Act.

Along the way, the MAGA firebrand has amassed a fortune unusual for a career Texas politician. Forbes estimates Paxton is worth roughly $13 million. His wealth is spread across real estate holdings in five states, several million invested in mutual funds and a valuable state pension. Some of his assets are in a blind trust of which he and his wife are beneficiaries, so it is possible that his financial position could be larger than current estimates suggest.

In November, Paxton is set to square off against Democrat James Talarico in a closely-watched race that could determine the makeup of the upper house.

Born to an Air Force pilot and a school teacher, Paxton grew up moving around the country a lot. He graduated from Baylor University in 1985 with a degree in psychology, and added an MBA the following year. In 1991, he graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law. He opened a practice specializing in estate planning in 2002.

Paxton has spent over two decades in the political sphere, beginning in his late 30s. He first took office in 2003, representing the 70th district in the Texas House. He was elected to the state Senate in 2012 and became state attorney general in 2015, serving under governors Rick Perry and Greg Abbott.

Paxton’s long political career not only allowed him to amass a comfortable, nearly seven-figure state pension. For elected officials, Texas law dictates that annual pension payments are proportional to the base salary of a district judge and the length of time in office. Paxton will become eligible to start collecting an estimated $94,000 in annuities as soon as he leaves office.

Paxton–who calls small businesses the “cornerstone of the economy”– has a penchant for side hustles. In 2005, while serving as a Texas state representative, he created a cell tower business called Premier Vertical Properties, L.P., in a joint venture with Texas telecom exec Richard Sine. The next year, Premier signed a lease agreement allowing T-Mobile to use a 119-foot-tall cell tower it controlled situated on the grounds of a hospital in Frisco, Texas.

Premier later added leases with Verizon Wireless in 2016 and Dish Wireless in 2024. Sine told Forbes that he and Paxton (and their wives) are the company’s only owners. Paxton’s 2025 financial disclosure estimated that the nominee’s stake in the cell tower was worth $250,000 to $500,000. His yearly income from the tower was disclosed as between $100,000 and $1 million, making the asset one of the most lucrative in his portfolio.

The tower wasn’t the only financial venture in Paxton’s earlier political career. In 2019, Motorola acquired WatchGuard, a police video technology company in which he invested, leading to a reported $2.2 million payout.

Since 2020, Paxton has purchased ten properties and taken out eight mortgages. He now owns at least 14 properties in five states, with an estimated combined value of around $10 million. The outstanding debt against those properties is about $4.7 million.

He started in his home state. In 2015 he bought a two-bedroom condo in Austin, which is currently worth around $270,000. The next year he added a house in College Station worth about 370,000. And in 2018 he purchased a house currently worth $1.2 million in the Tarrytown neighborhood of Austin. That home became a focal point of a 2023 impeachment inquiry, which alleged that Paxton had accepted renovations from real estate developer Nate Paul and assisted Paul in lawsuits in return. Paxton has denied these allegations and was acquitted by the Texas Senate. Including his primary residence in McKinney, Paxton’s properties in the Lone Star State are worth a combined $3 million.

Among his priciest recent grabs was a five-bedroom cabin in Broken Bow, Oklahoma—a lake town near the Texas border—that he bought for $1.6 million in 2022 and is now worth around $1.3 million per two local agents. He also snagged four condos in an Ivins, Utah luxury resort worth a combined $3 million, with $2 million still owed. Many properties were purchased by Paxton and transferred to a blind trust shared with his wife. The two are invested in 33 mutual funds totaling millions of dollars.

While these assets make up both Paxton’s net worth and his wife’s, they are engaged in ongoing divorce proceedings, and it remains unclear how much either party will walk away with. The attorney general has not responded to inquiries from Forbes regarding the details of his business interests and how the divorce may affect the split of his assets.