President-elect Donald Trump made several late-night Cabinet appointments last week, including Scott Turner to serve as the secretary of housing and urban development.
Turner, a former NFL player and Texas state lawmaker, worked as the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council’s first executive director during Trump’s first administration. The council’s mission was to collaborate with various federal agencies to attract investment to “Opportunity Zones,” or economically distressed areas that are eligible for federal tax incentives.
Trump said in his previous administration that Turner helped “lead an Unprecedented Effort that Transformed our Country’s most distressed communities” while working with Trump HUD Secretary Ben Carson.
He works as the chairman of the Center for Education Opportunity at the America First Policy Institute, which acts as a think tank for Trump. He is also a founder of the Community Engagement and Opportunity Council, an organization focused on helping communities in the country through sports, mentorship, and economic opportunity, according to the Texas Tribune.
During his nine-year stint in the NFL starting in 1995, he played as a defensive back for the Washington Redskins, San Diego Chargers, and Denver Broncos. He grew up in the Dallas suburb of Richardson and graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
The athlete-turned-politician has a long resume in politics from the past two decades. During offseasons while in the NFL, he worked as an intern for then-Rep. Duncan Hunter, according to the Associated Press.
Following his unsuccessful run for a California Senate seat in 2006, he was elected to the Texas House, in which he served two terms from 2013 to 2017. He entered office with a large crop of tea party-supported lawmakers. In 2016, he unsuccessfully tried to become the Texas House speaker before he finished his second term. He did not seek reelection for a third term.
Turner is the first black appointee to Trump’s Cabinet in his incoming administration. He is one of several Texans set to join Trump’s second administration, being nominated alongside Texas residents former Rep. John Ratcliffe for CIA director, Elon Musk for Department of Government Efficiency, and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence.
In his new role, should he be confirmed in the Senate, Turner will oversee all of the nation’s housing needs. The Department of Housing and Urban Development is tasked with enforcing fair housing laws and overseeing housing for the poorest Americans.
Turner will be in charge of public housing and the construction of affordable housing. He will also oversee programs that provide vouchers allowing low-income families to pay for housing in the private market.
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During his campaign, Trump mostly touched on the prices of housing, not public housing. He has addressed the high cost of housing, saying he would make housing more affordable by cracking down on illegal immigration and reducing inflation.
“Scott will work alongside me to Make America Great Again for EVERY American,” Trump said in a statement.