What Is Clay Higgins’s Net Worth? The Finances of the Lone "No" Vote on the Epstein Files

When the U.S. House of Representatives voted 427–1 to force the release of federal files on Jeffrey Epstein, Rep. Clay Higgins was the only lawmaker who hit “no” on the board. The vote approved the Epstein Files Transparency Act (H.R. 4405), which orders the Department of Justice to turn over its investigative records on Epstein and his longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

The Senate has since agreed to pass the bill by unanimous consent, and it’s now heading to President Donald Trump’s desk. Meanwhile, people have started Googling how much the Louisiana Republican is worth — and what’s behind that controversial vote.

Higgins’s net worth is difficult to pin down. An analysis from Finbold reviewed his latest House financial disclosure and found no reported assets and one liability — a mortgage with PennyMac Loan Services on his personal residence, valued between $250,001 and $500,000. The same report cites celebrity finance site CelebDoko, which estimates Higgins’s net worth at about $500,000 as of 2024–2025.

Higgins earns the standard congressional salary of $174,000 per year. That number has remained flat for Congress since 2009. Before Congress, Higgins held several jobs. According to Posse Comitatus, he enlisted in the Louisiana National Guard’s Military Police Corps in 1979, served until 1985. After leaving the Guard, he managed a car dealership before moving into policing. He became a patrol officer in Opelousas in 2004 and later worked for the St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Office.

After leaving the sheriff’s office, Higgins ran for Louisiana’s 3rd Congressional District in 2016 and won a runoff that December. Voters have reelected him several times, including in 2024. In Congress, he serves on the House Homeland Security Committee — where he chairs the Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement. Higgins also serves on the Oversight and Accountability Committee. Politically, Higgins aligns with the House Freedom Caucus.

On Nov. 18, the House passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act (H.R. 4405) in a 427–1 vote. The bill directs the Department of Justice to publish all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials related to the investigation of Jeffrey Epstein in a searchable format. Higgins cast the lone “no” vote. On X, he wrote that he had taken a “principled ‘NO’” on the bill and argued that it ignored core principles of America’s criminal justice system.

“What was wrong with the bill three months ago is still wrong today,” Higgins wrote. “It abandons 250 years of criminal justice procedure in America. As written, this bill reveals and injures thousands of innocent people — witnesses, people who provided alibis, family members, etc. If enacted in its current form, this type of broad reveal of criminal investigative files, released to a rabid media, will absolutely result in innocent people being hurt.”

Higgins also said he could support a future version if the Senate amended the bill to “properly address [the] privacy of victims and other Americans, who are named but not criminally implicated.”