His father worked in the manufacturing industry in Dayton for over 40 years, and his mother taught elementary school in the Huber Heights School District. Congressman Turner is the proud father of two daughters, Jessica and Carolyn Turner, who live in Dayton. Growing up, Congressman Turner attended Dayton Public Schools and graduated from Belmont High School. He continued his education in Ohio and received a bachelor's degree from Ohio Northern University; an MBA from the University of Dayton; and a Juris Doctorate from Case Western University School of Law. In the Spring of 2022, Turner graduated from Georgetown University with a Doctorate in Liberal Studies focused on urban economic development. Congressman Turner practiced law in Dayton for over 17 years and in 1991, he opened his own private legal practice specializing in real estate and corporate law.

Turner served as Mayor of the City of Dayton for eight years. During his tenure, he was a strong proponent of neighborhood revitalization and economic development. He created Rehabarama, a private-public partnership to rehabilitate neglected housing in Dayton's historic neighborhoods, which had significant economic impact on the region and received national awards. He also improved police response time by 40 percent, added 54 police officers to the force, and established a development fund that awarded over $19 million in grants for housing and job producing projects all while maintaining a balanced budget throughout his tenure.

Congressman Turner was first elected to Congress in 2002. In Congress, Turner is a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee and has previously served as the lead Republican of the Tactical Air and Land Forces subcommittee as well as the Strategic Forces subcommittee. The subcommittees oversee Army and Air Force acquisition programs, all Navy and Marine Corps aviation programs, nuclear weapons, missile defense and space systems.

At the time of Congressman Turner's election, there was no advocate for Wright-Patterson Air Force Base or Ohio's military installations on the House Armed Services Committee. Congressman Turner filled that void and throughout his time in Congress, Wright-Patt has successfully added approximately 15,000 jobs on-base and remains the largest single-site employer in the state of Ohio. Thousands of additional jobs have been created in the Miami Valley in support of the base.

After serving on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) since 2015, Turner was appointed as the Chairman of HPSCI in January 2023. Turner is Dayton's first elected official to serve in a leadership role on a national security committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. HPSCI has oversight of the nation's 17 intelligence agencies. Through that perch, Turner has expanded the intelligence operations at Wright-Patt by working to secure $182 million in federal funding for construction of a new National Air and Space Intelligence Center, the Air Force's primary source for foreign air and space threat analysis. Most recently, Congressman Turner was selected to sit on the Oversight and Accountability Committee. The Oversight Comittee seeks to ensure the efficiency, effectiveness and accountability of the federal government and all its agencies.

In January of 2011, Turner was appointed Chairman of the US Delegation to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Parliamentary Assembly, the inter-parliamentary organization of legislators from the countries of the North Atlantic Alliance. In December of 2014, Turner was elected President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. He now serves as Vice-Chairman of the Defense and Security Committee of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.