Trump names Prestonwood Baptist associate pastor and former Texas state Rep. Scott Turner to lead HUD

Former Texas state Rep. Scott Turner and associate pastor of Prestonwood Baptist, a multi-campus megachurch based in Plano, has been tapped to serve as secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in the incoming Trump Administration. 

Turner, 52, is the first black named to President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet.

During his first term in 2019, Trump appointed Turner to lead a council tasked with turning around distressed communities. He now chairs the Center for Education Opportunity at the America First Policy Institute, a think tank set up by former staffers from Trump’s first presidency, according to NPR news.

Turner spent nine seasons in the NFL before being twice elected to the Texas House of Representatives, serving from 2013 to 2017.

Turner joins two other high-profile Southern Baptists in the Trump Administration. Douglas Collins, a former Baptist pastor and graduate of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, has been nominated for secretary of veterans affairs, and Mike Huckabee, former Baptist pastor, and Arkansas governor, has been nominated for ambassador to Israel.