Meet Markwayne Mullin, the new multimillionaire head of DHS, who owns a cattle ranch in Oklahoma

“The president and I are good friends,” Mullin told reporters after the announcement. “We look forward to working closer with the White House.”

“Obviously, I’m gonna be over there a lot more.”

The Senator, who previously served 10 years in the House of Representatives before starting his senate term in 2023, is best known for challenging Teamsters President Sean O’Brien to a fistfight during a heated hearing in 2023. Among their many differences, Mullin criticized O’Brein for his $200,000 annual salary—as compared to Mullin’s $174,000 congressional one.

Mullin came under fire after claiming during the same hearing that he paid himself only $50,000 when he ran a plumbing business. However, his financial disclosures from 2012—the year he was first elected to Congress—told a different story: his self-reported salary was $92,000, almost double what he said. 

A deeper look at Mullin’s most recent financial disclosures from 2024 reveals that the senator is a multimillionaire.

What are Mullin’s assets?

Congressmembers don’t have to disclose the exact dollar values of their assets and liabilities, but rather, are allowed to give a range of values. They also don’t have to disclose the values of their personal residences. As a result, it’s rather difficult to get a true dollar amount to how much our representatives are worth.

Mullin’s only source of income is his congressional salary—though he owns several businesses, a home services company, and properties in his home state and in Washington, D.C. 

He and his wife, Christie, have owned Mullin Plumbing in Broken Arrow, Okla for 28 years, which his Senate website says is the largest service company in the region. He also is a joint owner of Mullin Ranch LLC, a 1600-acre cattle ranch and event and wedding venue in Okla., estimated to be worth between $1 million and $5 million, according to the filing. 

In 2024, his wife sold Rowan’s Restaurant, a steakhouse in Stilwell, Okla., for between $1 million and $5 million according to his disclosure. His bio says both he and his founded the steakhouse. He is also the joint owner of Mullin Family Holdco LLC,—the value unreported—and COP Hometown Parent LLC, valued at $500,000 to $1 million dollars, according to the disclosure. These holdings are distributed across himself, his spouse, and his children, with individual stakes often valued between $500,001 and $1,000,000.

He also founded Mullin Environmental, according to his website. The company received a COVID-era Paycheck Protection Program loan for $169,200, which was later forgiven according to ProPublica. 

He is a full or joint owner of at least 30 commercial, residential, and land investment properties, four of which are worth more than $1 million, according to the 2024 financial disclosure. They are mostly located in Okla., but he also owns one investment property in Washington, D.C. and Englewood, Fla. 

He also listed dozens of corporate securities and mutual fund holdings in the 2024 disclosure, ranging in worth from less than $1,001 to $1 million.

In 2024, Mullin also took out a line of credit valued between $5,000,001 and $25,000,000 from global financial services firm BNY, according to the disclosure. 

Building business at home

He grew up on his family ranch in Westville, Okla., where he still lives today, with his wife with whom he has six children, according to his Senate bio. He enrolled in Missouri Valley College on a wrestling scholarship, but left school at 20 years old to save his family business after his father got sick, according to his website. He got a degree in Applied Science in Construction Technology from Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology in 2010.

Mullin is one of several multimillionaires in the Senate. West Virginia Sen. Jim Justice, who owns several coal and mining companies and the luxury Greenbrier resort, is worth about $664 million, according to fintech firm Quiver Quantitative. (Quiver also estimated Mullin’s net worth to reach as high as $65.9 million). Quick Sen. Mark Warner is the wealthiest Democratic senator and has an estimated net worth between $76 and $303 million, mostly from investment funds, Business Insider reported.