Dem Senate candidate pushing water affordability agenda racked up unpaid bills on $1.28M home
Democrat Senate candidate Mallory McMorrow accrued nearly a year's worth of unpaid utility charges on her million-dollar home while campaigning on affordability.
Until Friday, McMorrow and her husband, former Gawker executive Ray Wert, had not paid water or sewer charges on their home in Royal Oak, Mich., since June 2025, according to records reviewed by Fox News Digital. The property had accrued $3,000.37 in unpaid bills and late fees.
The debt was paid shortly after Fox News Digital reached out for comment.
"The bills in question have been paid," the spokesperson said. "We respect the commitment to covering anything other than the fact that every single American’s bills – from gas to groceries to electricity – are going way up because of Donald Trump and his enablers like Mike Rogers."
McMorrow, a state legislator vying for the Democratic nomination in one of the country’s top Senate races, has repeatedly fallen behind on payments in recent years.
Records show the couple has been fined 10 times totaling more than $400 in late fees for nonpayment since late 2021, when they purchased a $1.28 million home in the Detroit suburb. A report in the Detroit Metro Times that year described the property — with a pool and outside courtyard — as a home "to marvel at."
McMorrow and Wert also let overdue water bills pile up on the home in the latter half of 2024, when they went five months without making a payment. When the couple finally paid $917 in January 2025, records showed an unpaid balance of $45 in late fees.
Royal Oak Township sends water bills quarterly and assesses a 5% late fee on unpaid balances. If McMorrow had failed to pay the balance by June 1, another 5% penalty would have been added, according to a billing notice.
Under Royal Oak policy, unpaid water and sewer bills can eventually be added to the couple’s property tax bill and prolonged nonpayment can result in water shutoff.
The delinquent payments come as recent disclosures show McMorrow and her husband may be millionaires.
She estimated her net worth between $588,041 and $1.87 million last year, Michigan Advance reported. Up to $1.15 million was reported under her name or as a joint asset with her husband, according to a financial disclosure filed last year.
McMorrow earned $101,554 from her state senator salary, according to the filing. She also reported just over $106,000 in royalties.
While McMorrow and her husband were falling behind on payments, she championed "affordability" legislation that would end water shutoffs for not paying city bills.
McMorrow cosponsored a measure last year that would cap water bills for qualifying low-income residents and offer debt forgiveness for overdue balances. The program would be funded through a regular surcharge on most Michigan water customers.
She has also backed the Human Right to Water Act, which would recognize access to affordable drinking water as a right and direct the state government to develop "affordability criteria."
In a March 2021 Facebook post, she advocated for legislation that would "end water shutoffs."
"Let’s be clear, access to water is a human right, even when there’s not a pandemic," she wrote.
The late utility payments come as McMorrow is running in a combative three-way Democratic primary to succeed Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., who is retiring.
The swing seat is a must-win race for Democrats hoping to retake Senate control, but Republicans also view the contest as a top flip opportunity. Former Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., cleared the field last year with President Donald Trump’s backing while the Democratic candidates continue to duke it out ahead of the August primary.
McMorrow is campaigning on a progressive platform that includes calling on the wealthy to pay their "fair share" in taxes. Democrat Sen. Bernie Sanders-backed Abdul El-Sayed is running to her left, and Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., a candidate with support from the party’s establishment swing, has espoused more centrist views.
Progressive Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., have endorsed McMorrow’s campaign.
She recently faced scrutiny for deleting thousands of old social media posts prior to her Senate campaign launch that denigrated "Middle America" and associated Trump and his base with Nazi Germany. CNN first reported on the trove of since-deleted posts.
The Senate hopeful largely defended her posts in an interview with the network, arguing she "tweeted normal things like a normal person."