Overview

• Hegseth reshared a CNN segment on X profiling Pastor Doug Wilson and CREC pastors who called for repealing the 19th Amendment and endorsed household voting under the motto “All of Christ for All of Life.”
• Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson insisted the defense secretary supports women’s suffrage but declined to clarify which aspects of the pastors’ broader Christian nationalist positions he shares.
• A Pentagon spokesperson confirmed Hegseth is a member of a church affiliated with the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches and that he “appreciates many of Mr. Wilson’s writings and teachings.”
• Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Rep. Chrissy Houlahan and other Democratic lawmakers plus advocacy organizations have called on Hegseth to apologize or step down over the video repost.
• Observers link the uproar to Hegseth’s broader Pentagon agenda, which has included rolling back DEI programs, reassigning senior female officers and canceling a women-in-security initiative.