When chatter about Herschel Walker’s prospective Senate campaign grew louder last year, one problem loomed large: The Republican lived in Texas, but he was expected to run in Georgia.
With this in mind, Walker, after decades of living in the Lone Star State, moved back to Georgia in August 2021 and launched a problematic political career soon after. This was not without complications: On the campaign trail, the GOP candidate continued to refer to his “home in Texas,” even as he tried to appeal to voters in Georgia.
But as it turns out, the challenges were not just rhetorical: CNN reported this morning that Walker is getting a tax break in Texas on his Dallas-area home that’s intended “only for a primary residence.“
Publicly available tax records reviewed by CNN’s KFile show Walker is listed to get a homestead tax exemption in Texas in 2022, saving the Senate candidate approximately $1,500 and potentially running afoul of both Texas tax rules and some Georgia rules on establishing residency for the purpose of voting or running for office.
According to CNN’s report, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, Texas’ regulations require homeowners to only take this exemption on their “principal residence.”
For Walker, this appears to create the latest in a series of problems: The Senate hopeful launched a campaign in Georgia in 2021, then took the homestead tax exemption in Texas later in the year, only to then take the same homestead tax exemption in Texas again this year.
CNN added, “Under Texas law, if a homeowner moves out of the state, the resident can still receive the exemption only if they don’t establish ‘principal residence’ elsewhere and plan to return to Texas within two years.” I suppose Walker could argue that his “principal residence” isn’t in Georgia, though that might cause some political difficulties for the Republican, given that he’s a Senate candidate in Georgia. Walker and his campaign team haven’t yet responded to the latest reporting. Walker’s runoff election against Sen. Raphael Warnock, the incumbent Democrat, is 13 days away.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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