Ken Paxton Claimed Three Houses as His Primary Residence, Records Show

Attorney General Ken Paxton of Texas and his now-estranged wife, Angela, declared three separate Texas homes as their primary residence in mortgage documents, according to records obtained by The New York Times.

The possible misrepresentation could have allowed the couple to secure more favorable loan terms and save hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The issue, first reported by The Associated Press, emerged Thursday, two weeks after his wife, a state senator, filed for divorce, accusing him of adultery, and a little more than three months after Mr. Paxton announced that he would challenge Senator John Cornyn in what could be the Republican primary season’s toughest, most expensive race in 2026.

The Paxtons did not respond to questions about their real estate holdings.

The Paxtons reside in a home worth more than $1 million in McKinney, a suburb of Dallas, according to their voter registration records. That house is in the State Senate district that Ms. Paxton represents and the one Mr. Paxton represented as a state senator before he was elected attorney general in 2014.

The couple also holds mortgages on two houses in Austin, each of which they also called their primary address. Those houses appear to be rental properties, based on online listings. Mr. Paxton has disclosed rental income from two Austin sources on his financial disclosure documents.

Properties that generate rental income are considered investment properties and can be more difficult to finance than owner-occupied homes because they are considered riskier investments.

It is a federal and state crime to knowingly make false statements on mortgage documents. Mortgage fraud cases are usually settled out of court through bank fees and other penalties because they are typically difficult to prove, legal experts said.

“You have to show they actively knew they were lying and they knew what they were doing,” said James C. Spindler, a corporate and securities law professor at the University of Texas at Austin. “That’s a high bar.”

But Democratic politicians, including New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, and Senator Adam B. Schiff of California, have faced scrutiny from the Trump administration amid accusations that they too falsified records to receive favorable loan terms. The head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency referred allegations against Ms. James to the Department of Justice. There isn’t any indication that Trump officials are investigating Mr. Schiff.

Mr. Paxton has held onto power over three terms as attorney general despite numerous legal challenges over the past decade. In 2015, he was indicted on accusations that he had misled investors into putting money into a technology company without disclosing that he was making a commission on their investments. Mr. Paxton was charged with securities fraud, a felony, and ultimately reached a $300,000 settlement deal to avoid a criminal trial.

In 2023, he was impeached by the Republican-controlled State House over accusations of corruption and abuse of power made by former top aides. He was acquitted in the Republican-led Senate.

Mr. Cornyn has called the looming primary fight “a test of whether character still matters,” and in a statement on Thursday, the senator’s campaign team called Mr. Paxton’s real estate maneuverings “deeply unethical.”

“At a time when millions of Americans are fighting to survive under high home mortgage rates, Ken Paxton lied to banks to amass a property empire making him a multimillionaire while on a government salary,” Mr. Cornyn’s campaign senior adviser Matt Mackowiak said in the statement.

Records indicate that the Paxtons have also collected tax breaks on two of their Texas homes. The couple has claimed a homestead exemption on their McKinney home since they purchased it, according to Collin County public records, reducing the amount of their home’s value that was subject to property taxes.

In 2017 and 2018, they simultaneously collected similar exemptions on one of their Austin properties, according to Travis County tax records. Under Texas law, homeowners seeking a homestead exemption must complete a form certifying that the property is their primary residence.

Mr. Paxton may have also violated mortgage terms by renting out at least two properties that were purchased as vacation homes. In 2022, Mr. Paxton bought a $1.6 million house in Broken Bow, Okla., with a $1.28 million mortgage. Mr. Paxton indicated in the mortgage document, which was not signed by his wife, that the property would be used as a second home, not as a time share or rental property. The property has been listed for rent on the vacation rental site Vrbo, the Dallas Observer reported.

The Paxtons also claimed that a fourth house they purchased in College Station, Texas, in 2016 would be used as a secondary home, not as a rental property. But the house, worth about $360,000, has been listed for rent seven times on Zillow since 2015.

Home buyers can sometimes rent out second homes with certain restrictions after they have owned the house for at least one year. It is not clear whether Mr. Paxton waited a year to rent out these homes, or if doing so was within the parameters of the mortgage agreement.