On Sunday, August 30, 2026, Fox News anchor Jacqui Heinrich asked Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton about something that has followed him through his Senate campaign: the fifteen homes he owns, worth roughly $9 million, on an attorney general's salary of $153,000 a year — and specifically about the three of them whose mortgages each say the house is his primary residence.

Heinrich did not soften the question. She pointed out that the Trump administration went after New York Attorney General Letitia James, Senator Adam Schiff and Lisa Cook over "exactly the same substance," and asked Paxton whether the reporting on him was wrong.

Paxton had an answer ready. It was the state constitution's fault.

"So in Texas, the constitution used to require that you — if you're a statewide office holder — you have to move to the capital. So I used to live in Collin County. When I became attorney general, I bought a condo in Austin so that I could live in the capital pursuant to what the constitution required."

He went on: his wife became a state senator, they bought a house, "that became my primary residence because it was required by the constitution." Then the constitution was changed, and he moved back to Collin County. "So, this idea that somehow that's fraudulent, they, of course, aren't following Texas law."

"Thank you for clearing that up," Heinrich said.

The rule he is blaming was repealed in his first year as attorney general

Texas did once require certain statewide officeholders to live in the capital. That requirement, on the books since 1876, was wiped out by Proposition 3, which Texas voters approved on November 3, 2015. The attorney general was one of the offices freed by it.

Ken Paxton was sworn in as attorney general in January 2015. The rule he says forced him into an Austin condo and then an Austin house was gone before his first year in office was over — nearly eleven years ago.

And when it went away, his office said he wasn't going anywhere. Three weeks after the vote, the Texas Tribune asked every affected officeholder whether they would leave Austin. Paxton's spokeswoman answered: "The attorney general has no plans to move." She said he kept residences in both Austin and McKinney, and that Travis County — Austin — was his "home county."

So the sequence Paxton described on Fox News, in which the constitution pushed him into Austin and its repeal pulled him back to Collin County, does not match what his own office said at the time.

His answer skips the two houses that are actually rented out

Even taken at face value, Paxton's explanation covers only the Austin properties. The Associated Press investigation that produced this story — published in July 2025 by Brian Slodysko — found two more problems that the Texas Constitution has never had an opinion about.

The mortgage on the Paxtons' house in College Station states that the property is for their exclusive use and cannot be rented out, and that renting it would be grounds for terminating the loan. The AP found it has been listed for rent on real estate websites on and off since at least 2022.

Paxton also holds a $1.2 million mortgage on a "5 bedroom luxury cabin" in Broken Bow, Oklahoma. That mortgage also says the property cannot be rented. It is listed on Airbnb and other short-term rental sites.

Broken Bow is in Oklahoma. No reading of the Texas Constitution required Ken Paxton to buy a cabin there, and none of it explains why two mortgages that forbid renting are attached to houses that get rented.

The AP also found that in 2018 the Paxtons simultaneously collected homestead property tax breaks — a benefit a homeowner may claim on only one home — on both the suburban Dallas house and a $1.1 million home in Austin. Travis County appraisal officials said that particular break had transferred to the Paxtons from the home's previous owner for the duration of that year.

Why the primary-residence label is worth money

This is not paperwork pedantry. Lenders charge noticeably lower interest on a mortgage for a house you actually live in than on a second home or an investment property. Legal experts told the AP that the three primary-residence designations will save the Paxtons tens of thousands of dollars over the life of the loans.

Knowingly making a false statement on a mortgage document is a federal and a state crime. Arif Lawji, a veteran Texas real estate attorney, told the AP: "If he filled out lender documents knowing that they were false, then that is a false statement to obtain a mortgage on favorable terms. That would be actionable. He's the chief enforcement officer. You have to be accountable for stuff you do that's wrong."

The chief enforcement officer part matters. Paxton's office is one of the primary agencies in Texas tasked with investigating mortgage fraud. He would be the person a referral went to.

He asked for exactly this scrutiny — of someone else

Heinrich's comparison to Letitia James was not a gotcha; it was the obvious question. The Trump administration has pursued James and Schiff over mortgage paperwork. In June 2025, Paxton weighed in on the James investigation, telling supporters: "I hope that if she's done something wrong, I hope that she's actually held accountable."

The AP noted one difference between them that cuts against Paxton. In 2020, Schiff formally re-designated his Maryland property as a second home. That is the step available to anyone who realizes a mortgage says something no longer true. It is a step, the AP wrote, that Paxton has not taken.

This is also not the first time Paxton's answer to "where do you actually live?" has landed him in trouble. A Texas Tribune and ProPublica investigation found he appears to have voted six times from a home he no longer lives in — and state law directs the secretary of state to refer a complaint like the one filed against him to his own office if there is reasonable cause to suspect a crime. This is a man who has built a career on prosecuting other people over voting paperwork.

The bottom line

Asked on Fox News why three of his fifteen homes each carry a mortgage saying it is his primary residence, Ken Paxton said the Texas Constitution required a statewide officeholder to live in Austin. Texas voters repealed that requirement on November 3, 2015 — his first year as attorney general — and three weeks later his own spokeswoman said he had no plans to move and called Travis County his home county. His explanation also says nothing about the College Station house or the $1.2 million Oklahoma cabin, both carrying mortgages that forbid renting, both of which the Associated Press found listed for rent. The office that investigates mortgage fraud in Texas is his.

Source

Ken Paxton Tells Fox News Anchor He Was 'Just Following Texas Law' When He Claimed 3 Primary Residences — Jennifer Bowers Bahney, Mediaite, August 30, 2026. The underlying investigation is by Brian Slodysko of the Associated Press. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.