Meet Steve Toth, the Millionaire Swimming Pool Magnate Who Beat Dan Crenshaw
The Texas landlord and state legislator is now likely headed to Washington this fall
As campaign season ramps up, let’s start looking into the wallets of some candidates who are likely to win a ticket to the U.S. House of Representatives this fall.
Ten percent (58) of the 541 members have already announced their retirements, and one incumbent, Dan Crenshaw of Texas, lost his reelection bid in the Republican primary to Steve Toth, so we can start there with our next likely new member of Congress for 2027 in the heavily Republican district in the Houston suburbs.
Steve Toth
The current Texas state legislator has a reputation for pushing his Republican colleagues and leadership to adopt even more conservative policies in his two stints in the state house. He ran as a more conservative option than Crenshaw and told the Texas Tribune that he plans on joining the far-right Freedom Caucus if elected.
Toth lives in Conroe, a northern suburb of Houston.
A self-professed ordained minister, Toth’s primary source of income is his swimming pool company - Acclaim Pools, LLC, which he founded in 2003, according to state filings.
Current Net Worth: $550k
$2.43 million in assets — three jointly-owned Texas rental properties that generated a combined $97k annually in rental income, his pool contractor business (where Toth received an $89k salary in 2024) and his AllianzLife fixed annuity.
$1.88 million in liabilities — three mortgages with Chase, Loan Depot and Woodforest National Bank.
Toth reported earning $96.2k in 2024 — an $89k salary from the pool business and $7k from his state legislature job.
As of September 2025, he had earned $115k for the year — $72k from the pool work, $37k from the Texas legislature and $4k from ERC Specialists.
Hunter Index obtained Toth’s state-level statements detailing his personal finances since 2012. They are all available for our readers to view below.
His primary income source has been his Magnolia, Texas-based pool businesses (Acclaim Pools and My Pool Xpert). He did not disclose any stock or trust holdings most years.
In 2012, he owned an Allianz “ennuity” sic worth at least $25k; two rental properties in The Woodlands and Magnolia that generated between $15k and $35k in rental income; two mortgages and another debt all worth at least $25k (highest range on the Texas forms); and three plots of land each worth at least $25k.
That year in his candidate form, he disclosed that he was an elder at WoodsEdge Community Church in Spring, Texas. The nondenominational Christian church does not believe in transgender or nonbinary people and thinks homosexual acts are sinful, according to its publicly available beliefs and “Statement on Marriage, Gender and Sexuality” that they require all elders to agree to and abide by.
He has also been a board member of Mighty Oaks, a faith-based nonprofit supporting veterans through peer-to-peer “Resiliency and Recovery programs” to treat PTSD and other challenges.
What Are We Missing?
We’ve sought comment from Toth’s campaign, but did not receive a response as of publication time.
We were unable to verify any information about Toth’s earned income from ERC Specialists in 2025, including contacting the company directly. Our team at Hunter Index doubts that it was actually a salary or earned income payment, as Toth reported. We assume — but cannot confirm as of publication time — that it was more likely a payment received based on the company’s core business, helping companies get payroll tax refunds or credits as part of the flawed pandemic-era relief program: Employee Retention Credit (ERC).
The program was created as part of Republican President Trump’s pandemic relief efforts in 2020, expanded by Democratic President Joe Biden briefly until he closed the program due to widespread suspected fraud. The IRS was investigating the 400,000 claims seeking over $10 billion in tax refunds or credits. Even President Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act”, passed during his second term in 2025, formally closed the program to new claims. For more about the flawed program, we recommend reading this Associated Press article from April 2024.
Toth has filed three candidate forms already. The original form and the first amendment failed to disclose any assets and incorrectly listed his liabilities as all individually worth over $50 million. We’ll chalk that up to sloppiness rather than intentional omission — though not inexperience, given that Toth filed this same form in 2016.
Document Dump
Here are all the files we have obtained and used in reporting on Toth’s personal finances.
Why Does It Matter?
Please be informed of your politicians’ personal finances.
That’s our goal at the Hunter Index. We believe it is important for constituents to understand how their government officials’ personal finances may affect their policy-making decisions, as well as being aware of the potential income and wealth gap between many politicians and their constituents.
Remember our favorite questions: Would you make a decision that costs your family money for the public good? Isn’t that what we ask of our government officials?
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