Scott Turner, Executive Director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council, speaks as US President Donald Trump and senior adviser Jared Kushner listen during a meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House on May 18, 2020, in Washington, DC. | Source: Getty Images / Getty
President-elect Donald Trump announced on Friday night that he would nominate Scott Turner to be Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), making him the first Black person to serve in the incoming presidential administration.
Trump announced in an email:
I am pleased to nominate Scott Turner, from the Great State of Texas, as the Secretary of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Scott is an NFL Veteran, who, during my First Term, served as the First Executive Director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council (WHORC), helping to lead an Unprecedented Effort that Transformed our Country’s most distressed communities. Those efforts, working together with former HUD Secretary, Ben Carson, were maximized by Scott’s guidance in overseeing 16 Federal Agencies which implemented more than 200 policy actions furthering Economic Development. Under Scott’s leadership, Opportunity Zones received over $50 Billion Dollars in Private Investment!
After graduating from University of Illinois, Scott was drafted by the Washington Redskins, and spent nine years in the NFL before he went on to win a State House Race in Texas, where he was born and raised.
Scott is the Founder & CEO of his Family’s Foundation, Community Engagement & Opportunity Council (CEOC), working to revitalize communities across America through Sports, Mentorship, and Economic Opportunity. He is also on the Board of the American Cornerstone Institute, and an Associate Pastor at Prestonwood Baptist Church.
Scott will work alongside me to Make America Great Again for EVERY American. Congratulations to Scott, his wonderful wife, Robin, and his son, Solomon!
Scott Turner, executive director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council, speaks at the National Historically Black Colleges and Universities Week Conference at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington, D.C., on September 10, 2019, at the president’s invitation. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images is the source.
Click here to learn more about Turner.
The announcement came after more and more people asked Trump to choose a Black person. For two weeks, Trump’s nominations did not include any Black people, even though some of them were thought to be white supremacists or other extremists.
There were even questions about whether there were any “Black jobs” in Trump’s second administration, given the people he is surrounded himself with, some of whom call Black people who have jobs “DEI hires.”
Specifically, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida were both getting close to Trump during the election season, most likely to try to get a job in Trump’s administration.
So far, they and a few other well-known Black Trump supporters have been left out of the running for cabinet positions and top presidential advisor positions.
Trump chose Turner instead. Turner was a Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2012 to 2019, when he was named to lead the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council.
If confirmed, Turner would replace Adrianne Todman, who was acting HUD Secretary when Marcia Fudge, a former longtime Congresswoman from Ohio and HUD Secretary at the time, quit suddenly in March. Todman was Deputy HUD Secretary.
It is not a coincidence that HUD has had the most Black secretaries of any federal agency.
HUD was created in 1965, and the next year, a Black man was appointed as its first Secretary. Since Robert Weaver was in charge of HUD, there have been five other Black secretaries, including Ben Carson in Trump’s first administration.
If Turner is confirmed, that number could go up to six.