Scott Turner

Football player-turned-politician Scott Turner is serving as the 19th Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, a Trump appointee who was confirmed into the role on February 5, 2025. Prior to politics, the DFW native spent nine seasons in the NFL, starting in 1995, until his retirement in 2004. 

Turner’s political career began with an internship for Congressman Duncan Hunter. He unsuccessfully ran for a congressional seat in California in 2006. In 2012, he won a seat in the Texas House of Representatives and unsuccessfully challenged House Speaker Joe Straus during his second term. He served as representative of the 33rd district (in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs) until 2017. 

During Trump’s first administration, Turner was named executive director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council. His time at HUD has so far been relatively low profile compared with personalities such as Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte. Turner’s legislative history reflects a skeptical view of social safety programs, as he voted to maintain a landlord’s right to refuse tenants with housing vouchers and opposed a grant program for low homeownership rates. 

— Isaiah Mitchell