Scott Turner Rep Rev HUD

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oops see bak

02/11/2026

Last year, Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner teamed up with Christian nationalist worship leader and right-wing political activist Sean Feucht to host a Christian worship service on the National Mall.

Shortly thereafter, Feucht revealed that he was working with members of the Trump administration to organize a series of similar worship services around the country in 2026, tied to the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

During a livestream broadcast on Monday, Feucht announced details of what he called the "Roots Of Revival" tour in which the federal government will partner with him as he hosts prayer events "from coast to coast [in] all the historic and epic places of revival and awakening that were birthed in America."

"As I was praying and fasting leading into the new year, I felt like the Lord said, 'Remind America on the 250 year anniversary of her heritage in revival and awakening.' In other words, call America back to God, this is the source of our strength," Feucht said.

"Here's the exciting thing," he continued. "The coolest part is we get to do it together with the Freedom 250 organization, which is the White House/Trump administration arm executing the mandate of celebrating America's 250 year birthday. We're so excited. We have come into an agreement with them to partner together, to collaborate together. They're going to be coming out to some of our events. We're going to be championing other things they're doing and so it's just very, very amazing. It is a dream come true and such a blessing."

"It's just an amazing season from God to be able to do this in partnership with our own government and to know that they have our back and to be able to be an extension of literally the Faith Office inside of the White House, all the people that are praying inside of there, so many members of the the Cabinet and the Trump administration love Jesus and they're going to be a part of this in various ways," Feucht gushed. "It's just so exciting to announce that we are officially partnering together."

Feucht also announced that his "Roots Of Revival" tour was going to be participating in the Trump administration's National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise, and Thanksgiving to be held on the National Mall on May 17.

"We're going back with the White House, with our own government, to help them host a whole day of worship and prayer," he said. "We're so excited. May 17 is when that happens on the National Mall, but the whole year, Roots of Revival is going to be partnered with the White House and many other organizations."

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03/06/2025

Kyle Mantyla

On Wednesday, Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner toured Los Angeles to survey the devastation wrought by the wildfires that ravaged the region earlier this year.

Among those invited to join Turner on the tour was Christian nationalist worship leader and right-wing political activist Sean Feucht, who not only worshiped with Turner but bragged that he and other religious leaders were being brought in to share "God's strategy" on how to rebuild the region.

"Would you support me today as I go up to Los Angeles to meet together with HUD Secretary Scott Turner and his entire team that are flying in from D.C., to view the catastrophe of these wildfires across Los Angeles, and to meet with faith leaders so that we can pray to get God's strategy on how to rebuild this great city and this great region?" Feucht asked in a video posted on social media yesterday.

"I can't over emphasize how amazing this opportunity is," he continued. "I'm bringing my guitar. We're going to worship. We're going to pray. We're going to go through all of the devastated areas and ask God how we can rebuild this to serve the people of L.A. and California."

Feucht gushed that "this amazing Cabinet that President Trump has put into place" wants "to support local ministries and local pastors and they want our advice and perspective on how the government can help rebuild."

"Look at what God is doing," Feucht marveled. "The church has a seat at the table to give divine perspective."

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an pro pub 12 24

As Donald Trump’s nominee to run the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Scott Turner may soon oversee the nation’s efforts to build affordable apartments, protect poor tenants and aid the homeless. As a lawmaker in the Texas House of Representatives, Turner voted against those very initiatives.

Turner supported a bill ensuring landlords could refuse apartments to applicants because they received federal housing assistance. He opposed a bill to expand affordable rental housing. He voted against funding public-private partnerships to support the homeless and against twobills that called merely to study homelessness among young people and veterans.

Behind those votes lay a deep-seated skepticism about the value of government efforts to alleviate poverty, a skepticism that Turner has voiced again and again. He has called welfare “dangerous, harmful” and “one of the most destructive things for the family.” When one interviewer said receiving government assistance was keeping recipients in “bondage” of “a worse form to,” Turner agreed.

Such views would seemingly place Turner at odds with the core work of HUD, a sprawling federal agency that serves as a backstop against homelessness for millions of the nation’s poor, elderly and disabled. With an annual discretionary budget of $72 billion, the department provides rental assistance to 2 million families, oversees the country’s 800,000 public housing units, fights housing discrimination and segregation and provides support to the nation’s 650,000 homeless. If Turner’s record indicates how he will direct the agency’s agenda, it is those clinging to the bottom of the housing market who have the most to lose, researchers and advocates said.

“It just doesn’t seem to me like this is someone who is at all aligned with what the values of that agency should be,” said Cea Weaver, director of the advocacy group Housing Justice for All. “It’s a deregulatory agenda, and it’s an anti-poor people agenda.”

Shamus Roller, executive director of the National Housing Law Project, said Turner’s views, if translated into policy, could increase homelessness. “If, at a fundamental level, you believe that people getting assistance with their rent when they’re very poor and struggling, if you think that’s actually dependence and a bad thing, you’re going to try to undermine those programs,” he said.

One former colleague offered a more optimistic view of Turner’s stewardship of HUD. “My sense of him is he will try to help people,” said Richard Peña Raymond, a Democratic Texas House member who served on a committee with Turner. “I do think he’ll do a good job.”

Turner did not respond to detailed questions. A spokesperson for the nominee said: “Of course ProPublica would try and paint a negative picture of Mr. Turner before he is even given the opportunity to testify. We would expect nothing less from a publication that solely serves as a liberal mouthpiece.”

The Trump transition team and HUD did not respond to requests for comment. Trump’s announcement of Turner’s nomination praised him for “helping lead an Unprecedented Effort that Transformed our Country’s most distressed communities” as head of a White House council that promoted opportunity zones, a plan to spur investment in low-income neighborhoods by offering generous tax breaks, during Trump’s first administration. “Under Scott’s leadership,” the announcement went on, “Opportunity Zones received over $50 Billion Dollars in Private Investment!”

Turner is hardly the only Trump cabinet nominee to display skepticism or outright hostility toward the work of agencies they may lead. But, while other nominees have faced intense scrutiny in recent weeks, Turner has attracted little public attention and said even less about his intentions, beyond vowing to “bring much-needed change” to HUD, as he wrote on Facebook last month. ProPublica pieced together his views on housing through a review of legislative records and of Turner’s public speeches, podcast appearances and sermons at the Plano, Texas, megachurch where he is a pastor.

A possible HUD agenda for Turner can be found in Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s recommendations for a conservative presidential administration. The report calls for cutting funding for affordable housing, repealing regulations that fight housing discrimination, increasing work requirements and adding time limits for rental assistance and eliminating anti-homelessness policies, among other changes. The Project 2025 chapter on HUD lists Ben Carson, the department secretary during the first Trump administration and a mentor to Turner, as its author. Carson, as secretary, was involved in efforts to end an anti-segregation rule, add work requirements for housing assistance and make it harder to prove housing discrimination.

Turner’s views appear to be deeply rooted in his upbringing outside Dallas, where he was, as he later put it, “a young kid from a broken home, from a poor family.” His parents’ relationship was “filled with violence, domestic violence, abuse, a lot of anger [and] alcohol.” Years later, as a legislator, Turner said that his sister had been “on state assistance and wasn’t feeding [Turner’s] nephew while she was on drugs.” (ProPublica was unable to locate Turner’s sister for comment.)

Football proved an escape. Turner received a scholarship to play for the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and then he went on to a nearly decadelong career in the National Football League. He began transitioning into politics while still in the league, interning for California Rep. Duncan Hunter, a Republican who years later would be convicted of stealing from his campaign account. After an unsuccessful run for a California congressional seat in 2006, Turner moved back to Texas and was elected in 2012 to the state House of Representatives, where he served for four years.

There, Turner solidified his position as a deeply conservative member opposed to many government interventions into the housing market, legislative records show. He voted against supporting foreclosure prevention programs. He opposed legislation to help public housing authorities replace or rehabilitate their property (although he voted for a minor expansion of that bill two years later). He also sought to require drug testing for poor families applying for government assistance, the Houston Chronicle reported at the time. Turner did support some modest housing assistance measures, such as bills helping housing developments for seniors and in rural areas seek low-income housing tax credits.

During his time in office, Turner was the lead author of 17 substantive bills. None were related to housing, and none of them became law.

“He’s a very nice guy,” but “he didn’t really make much of a legislative impression,” said a former high-ranking Republican Texas lawmaker, who requested anonymity to speak candidly about a former colleague. “He didn’t leave a deep footprint.”

That did not stop Turner, however, from mounting an audacious bid for the House speakership, a move reportedlybackedby Tim Dunn, a West Texas pastor and oil billionaire who has used his fortune to push the state Legislature far to the right. Turner’s speaker campaign failed, but it helped solidify his position within Texas’ deep-red Christian political milieu, where he has remained ever since.

Turner is an associate pastor at Prestonwood Baptist Church, a political force in Texas that has counted numerous statewide elected officials as congregants. Jack Graham, the church’s senior pastor, prayed over Trump at an event in October and from the pulpit in November. Turner’s skepticism about government assistance has found its way into his sermons there, where the “perverse incentives created by the government and the welfare system, which in turn creates an epidemic of fatherlessness in our country.”

Turner or his political staffers also used campaign money to attend three conferences held by WallBuilders, an organization that seeks “to reveal the historical truths” about the “Christian foundation of our nation,” campaign finance records show. In 2016, Turner gave a $10,000 gift to WallBuilders from his campaign account.

Turner’s allies on the Christian far right also include Ziklag, a secretive network of ultrawealthy Christian families and religious influencers that support Trump. As ProPublica reported, Ziklag has raised millions of dollars as part of a larger mission to help Christian leaders “take dominion” over key areas of American society, from education and business to media and government. This year, Ziklag spent millions of dollars to mobilize Republican-leaning voters in swing states despite being a tax-exempt charity that isn’t allowed to intervene in politics. (A lawyer for Ziklag previously told ProPublica that the organization does not endorse candidates for political office.)

In June 2019, Turner and his wife, Robin, attended a private Ziklag conference at the Broadmoor luxury resort in Colorado Springs, Colorado, according to photos of the event posted by an attendee. At the time, Turner was working in the first Trump administration as executive director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council, where he served as a public salesman for the opportunity zones initiative. Turner as a way to improve neighborhoods with high poverty and unemployment rates. Previous reporting by ProPublica found that the program was exploited by wealthy, politically connected investors, which drew scrutiny from members of Congress.

Internal documents obtained by ProPublica and Documented show that Ziklag members sought to take advantage of the program; in May 2019, Ziklag said in one of its newsletters that members of the group had met with three administration officials about opportunity zones. “The administration informed the group they are in a state of listening and learning about the program,” the document reads. “Ziklaggers are exploring additional avenues to make an impact on the program moving forward.”

After leaving the Trump administration, Turner started a nonprofit that promotes “Christ-centered reading enhancement programs” for children and helps people get driver’s licenses. He also became “chief visionary officer” at the multifamily housing developer JPI.

Now, if confirmed, Turner will be in charge of an agency with some 10,000 employees at a critical time. “We’re dealing with a pretty terrible housing crisis all across the country,” said Roller, of the National Housing Law Project. HUD will be “essential to any effort” to solve it.

Jesse Coburn covers cities, housing and transportation for ProPublica. He’s interested in how the second Trump administration will reshape federal policy in those areas, particularly at the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Transportation. If you work for one of those agencies or are affected by their work, he’d like to hear from you. You can email him at jesse.coburn@propublica.org, or reach him via phone, Signal or WhatsApp at 917-239-6642. His mailing address is: Jesse Coburn, ProPublica, 155 6th Avenue, 13th Floor, New York, NY 10013.

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Eric Scott Turner (born February 26, 1972) is an American businessman, motivational speaker, politician, and former professional football player who is serving as the 19th United States secretary of Housing and Urban Development since 2025.

He served as executive director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council from 2019 to 2021. Previously, Turner served as state representative for Texas's 33rd House District, which includes part of Collin County and all of Rockwall County, from 2013 to 2017. Before entering politics, Turner played cornerback in the National Football League (NFL) for nine seasons.

In November 2024, President-elect Trump announced his intent to nominate Turner as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in his second administration. He was confirmed by the United States Senate to the office on February 5, 2025, by a vote of 55-45, and took office later that day.

Early life and education

A fourth-generation Texan,^[2] Turner grew up in the Dallas area.^[3][4] As a child, he attended Mount Pisgah Baptist Community Church, where members of his family have been active since 1898.^[4] At the age of 10, Turner’s parents divorced.^[4] He told his mother that he was going to play in the NFL.^[5]

Turner attended Pearce High School,^[6] where he played football and ran track^[5] and graduated in 1990.^[4] In high school, he worked as a dishwasher at Spring Creek Barbeque in Richardson, Texas.^[4]

Turner earned a full academic and athletic scholarship to the University of Illinois.^[6] In football, he initially played wide receiver and switched to cornerback his senior year,^[6] wearing number "21" and compiling forty-eight tackles for the 1994 Liberty Bowl champions.^[7] In track and field, Turner specialized in the 200 and 400 meters,^[7] winning Big Ten Indoor Freshman of the Year in 1991,^[8] and a pair of Big Ten 400 meters indoor titles in 1992 and 1993.^[7] He was named Big Ten Athlete of the Month (January) in 1993,^[9] and earned First Team, All-Big Ten honors in 1992, 1993, and 1994.^[3][10] As part of the Illinois men's 4x400 meter relay indoor team (1991) and outdoor teams (1993 and 1994), Turner received All-America status in track and field.^[11]

Turner graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in speech communications in 1995.^[5]

Football career

[edit]

Eric Turner was drafted in the seventh round of the 1995 NFL draft by the Washington Redskins.^{[4][3][12][13}] He signed a three year deal with the team,^[5] played cornerback for the Redskins from 1995 to 1997.^[14] After three years, Turner was cut by Redskins coach Norv Turner.^[4]

He then played four seasons (1998-2002) for the San Diego Chargers.^[13][14] He was cut by the Chargers,^[5] and did not play in the 2002 NFL Season. Turner was the last Charger to wear #21 before Hall of Famer LaDainian Tomlinson wore the number.^[15]

Turner signed with the Denver Broncos in 2003.^[13][14] A 2004 leg injury during training camp ended his professional football career.^[5] He played in 101 NFL games, recording 89 tackles, five interceptions (including one for a touchdown),^[7] and two sacks.^[14][7]

Since his playing career ended, Turner has served as a coach for the NFL’s Legends Community transition program,^[13] and as a senior advisor to the NFL’s executive vice president of football operations.^[16][2]

Political career

[edit]

During the 2003 NFL off-season, Turner worked as an intern for Congressman Duncan Hunter.^[13][4] After retiring from football, he accepted a full-time job in the congressman's office. In 2006, he ran for the vacated seat of California's 50th congressional district in the special election to replace Duke Cunningham. In the blanket primary election held April 11, 2006, Turner finished eighth out of 17 candidates.^[17] After losing the election, Turner moved back to Frisco, Texas.

In 2012, Turner announced his candidacy for the newly created 33rd District of the Texas House of Representatives. Turner defeated Jim Pruitt in the Republican primary and defeated Libertarian candidate Michael Carrasco in the November 6 general election.

He was sworn into the Texas Legislature on January 8, 2013.^[18] That same year, he was named by GOPAC to their list of Emerging Leaders in the Republican party.^[19] Turner challenged Joe Straus for role of Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives in January 2015, the first recorded Speaker vote since 1976.^[20] Though backed by the Tea Party Caucus, Turner lost to Straus by 127 votes to 19.^[21][22]

Turner served two consecutive terms in the Texas Legislature, representing the 33rd District from January 2013 to January 2017.^[18][2]

[](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_White_House_Opportunity_Zones_Conference_%2846716434265%29.jpg)Turner in 2019 at The White House Opportunity Zones Conference with President Donald Trump (right)

In 2019, President Donald Trump appointed Turner as the director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council, created by Executive Order 13853.^{[23][24][16][2][25}]

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development

[edit]

Nomination and confirmation

[edit]

In November 2024, Trump nominated Turner for the position of Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in his second administration.^[26][27]

He appeared before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs on January 16, 2025.^[28] The committee approved his nomination in a 13–11 vote on January 23.^[29] On February 5, 2025, the Senate confirmed his nomination in a 55–44 vote.^[30] He was sworn in later that day by Justice Clarence Thomas.^[31]

Business career

[edit]

From 2007 to 2023, Turner worked at Systemware, a content management software company, where he served in various capacities, including chief inspiration officer.^[2][5][13]

Turner is the founder and president of Community Engagement & Opportunity Council (CEOC), an organization that supports children living in poverty.^[16][6] CEOC is credited with renovating the Literacy Lab in Bonton, a section of Dallas.^[6]

In 2023, Turner was named Chief Visionary Officer of JPI, a national developer, builder, and investment manager of Class A, attainable and affordable multifamily assets across the U.S.^[32][16]

Turner and his wife, Robin Turner, own Statesman Clothiers, a custom men’s clothing company.^[13][7]

Turner owns a consulting firm, Scott Turner Consulting Group, LLC. Since 2020, he has consulted for the NFL, Guidestone Financial, Avondale Dealerships, and the America First Policy Institute.^[33]

Personal life

[edit]

Turner is married to Robin Turner,^[13][2][4] a Champaign, Illinois native and an University of Illinois alumna.^[7] The couple raised his nephew, Solomon,^[2][4] who played football for and graduated from the University of Illinois in 2024.^[24]

Turner and his family are members of Prestonwood Baptist Church, where he serves as an associate pastor.^[34][16][4] He received an honorary doctorate from Dallas Baptist University in 2016.^[2][13]

References

afpi off bs

Biography

Scott Turner is from Richardson, Texas, and served as Chair of the Center for Education Opportunity at the America First Policy Institute. Turner is an accomplished businessman, motivational speaker, and former professional football player who previously served as the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council (WHORC) Executive Director. While leading WHORC, Turner collaborated with executive departments and agencies to engage state, local, tribal, and territorial governments in identifying better ways to utilize public funds to revitalize urban and economically distressed communities. He oversaw more than 200 policy actions that furthered economic development.

He is the Founder and CEO of the Community Engagement & Opportunity Council (CEOC). After witnessing some of our Nation’s most distressed communities during his time at WHORC, Turner felt led to expand his efforts to serve those in need. CEOC’s mission is to revitalize communities through sports, mentorship, and economic opportunity.

Turner also serves as the Chief Visionary Officer at JPI, the Nation’s leading designer, builder, and developer of multifamily homes, delivering premier Class A communities across the income spectrum. Once confirmed, Turner will be the FIRST Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) with private sector experience drawing on his leadership at JPI.

From 2013 to 2017, Turner served two terms as a Texas State Representative for the 33rd District, representing parts of Collin County and all of Rockwall County. Before entering public service, Turner played nine seasons in the NFL with the Washington Redskins, San Diego Chargers, and Denver Broncos. He has also served as a senior advisor at the NFL and as an associate pastor at Prestonwood Baptist Church. Turner attended the University of Illinois, where he was a starting cornerback and earned a Bachelor of Arts in speech communication. In 2016, he received an honorary Doctor of Humanities from Dallas Baptist University for his outstanding Christian leadership.

Outside of work, Turner and his wife, Robin, are active in their church and community. They are proud supporters of their son, Solomon, a recent graduate of the University of Illinois.

America First Credentials

Supports

Housing Accessibility

Committed to expanding access to affordable housing, particularly low-income families and veterans, ensuring every American can secure safe, reliable, and reasonably priced living accommodations.

Public-Private Partnerships for Housing Solutions

Dedicated to supporting Opportunity Zones (OZs), which allow investment in local projects and businesses in economically distressed areas to improve quality of life and further develop low-income communities.

Safe Affordable Housing

Supports investments in OZs, which enable the creation of safe and affordable housing options for the most underserved communities in rural and urban areas. To date, house values in OZs have increased by 3.4% with no observable increase in rent. Plus, housing unit growth has accelerated in OZs relative to communities with similar characteristics—low-income, impoverished, and racially diverse—that were not designated as OZs.

Promoting Community Revitalization and Upgrading Infrastructure

Turner’s leadership will focus on revitalizing urban areas by prioritizing infrastructure upgrades, creating job opportunities, and enhancing access to quality education in underserved communities.
OZs revitalize economically struggling neighborhoods by attracting public and private investments. These zones often focus on improving infrastructure, building commercial spaces, and upgrading residential areas, all of which contribute to HUD’s goal of fostering communities.
HUD supports such revitalization efforts as a way to reduce poverty, improve quality of life, and attract further investments in distressed urban and rural areas.
OZs account for 20% of all market-rate apartment units being developed nationally compared to only 8% in those areas before the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 passed, which created OZs.

Long-term Funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)

Supports President-elect Trump’s historic funding of HBCUs. This funding helped ensure their sustainability by securing long-term, stable funding, which allowed them to continue providing quality education and support to underserved students in the face of historical underinvestment.
Federal investment in HBCUs is a critical component for housing redevelopment and community investment through many HUD programs, such as the Community Outreach Partnership Centers, which grant funding to colleges and universities nationwide.

Small Business Deregulation

Supports deregulation and low taxes to boost small businesses through the Office of Small & Disadvantaged Business Utilization and create local, sustainable jobs. This bolsters one of HUD’s priorities, which is to encourage local job creation through the Jobs Plus Initiative program.
OZs have raised employment growth by 3 to 4.5 percentage points relative to similar communities not designated as OZs.

Opposes

Limited Housing Options for Families

Rejects housing models that limit options for families and restrict availability, demonstrated through his leadership at JPI, which focuses on sustainable development and strategic partnerships to provide Class A multifamily housing for all.

Expansion of Welfare

Opposes total on welfare or expansion of the welfare state.

America First Achievements

*While serving as WHORC Executive Director, Scott Turner created historic public-private partnerships leading to huge growth in the most underserved communities.

Fostering Economic Opportunity

Supported the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which lowered corporate and individual tax rates and stimulated economic growth and job creation, in part due to the creation of OZs.

Bipartisan Partnerships

OZ investments are now in more than 8,700 communities and have bipartisan support at the federal and state levels.

Billions in Private Investment

OZs have attracted $84 billion in investments that have resulted in infrastructure and housing revitalization.

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Scott Turner, HUD Secretary

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) (.gov)

http://www.hud.gov › about › leadership › Scott_Turner

Scott Turner was confirmed by the United States Senate on February 5, 2025, to be the 19th Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development ...

Secretary Scott Turner Halts Enforcement Actions of HUD's ...

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) (.gov)

http://www.hud.gov › press › hud_no_25_026

Secretary Turner's action will ensure housing programs, shelters and other HUD-funded providers offer services to Americans based on their sex at birth: male ...