President-elect Donald Trump has identified former NFL player Scott Turner as his new pick to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the only Black person chosen as Trump has named his entire prospective Cabinet.
Turner was something of a surprise pick, as Politico wrote the announcement “was met with some befuddlement in the housing industry.”
He played football and ran track at the University of Illinois and was drafted into the NFL in 1995. He played defensive back for Washington for two seasons, San Diego for four, and Denver for his final year in the league in 2003.
During his offseasons in the NFL, Turner interned for Rep. Duncan Hunter (R., Calif.) before joining full-time upon his NFL retirement in 2004. He unsuccessfully ran for Congress in California as a Republican in 2006, and joined the Texas House in 2013, where he served two terms until 2017. He ran for Speaker of the Texas House and failed.
In 2019, Trump tapped Turner to run the new White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council, a multi-agency group under HUD that Trump called “an unprecedented effort that transformed our country’s most distressed communities.” The president-elect claimed Turner helped bring $50 billion in private investments to target areas called “opportunity zones.”
HUD was established in 1965 and provides public housing and rental assistance for low-income citizens, mortgage and loan insurance, community development grants, and funding for homeless programs.
Since leaving office, Turner has chaired the center for education opportunity at a pro-Trump think tank called the America First Policy Institute, whose board is chaired by WWE cofounder Linda McMahon, the president-elect’s choice to lead the Department of Education.
Turner has also worked as a pastor, a motivational speaker, and “chief inspiration officer” of a software company. He and his wife founded a nonprofit aimed at increasing childhood literacy.
Trump’s pick is not to be confused with the NFL’s other Scott Turner, currently the Raiders’ interim offensive coordinator. His father, Norv Turner, is also a longtime NFL coach, and was the Washington head coach who once cut the HUD appointee.
Turner wouldn’t be the first former NFL player to lead the HUD. Jack Kemp played in the league in the 1950s and 1960s, and he held the cabinet position during George H. W. Bush’s term in office.
Trump’s picks still need approval from the Senate next year to be finalized. Trump’s pick to lead HUD in his first administration, Ben Carson, was confirmed in a relatively close 58–41 vote in March 2017.
Carson, a medical doctor, is also Black and ran against Trump in the Republican primary in 2016.
