Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says he's proud to be part of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, an archconservative network of Christian congregations. Hegseth recently made headlines when he shared a CNN video on social media about CREC,

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has publicly supported his church’s Christian Nationalist pastor Doug Wilson, reposting a CNN interview in which Wilson says he’d like to re-criminalize consensual same-sex sexual encounters and deny women the right to vote.

On July 29, NBC reported that Hegseth has "privately discussed the idea of running for political office." While the Pentagon’s chief spokesman Sean Parnell denied any idea of Hegseth vying for the governorship in Tennessee, the Secretary of Defense could run for office should he choose to leave his current post.