He’s been all over the map politically. He served as Secretary of the Navy in the Reagan Administration. He wrote an interesting book on the Scotts-Irish and ruined it by claiming they should become just one more assertive ethnic-identity group clamoring for government largess. The guy is actually more of an opportunist than a principled advocate, which is why his returned to the Democrat party made some sense.
IIRC, his stint in the Reagan administration was not because he believed in Reagan’s policies. I believe he quit as SecNav due to disagreements over policy. I’ll have to go back and find the source. He really plays the “I worked for Reagan card” but he is in no way a Reaganite.