Clinton woos Hispanics with VP hint
One twin is a member of Barack Obama’s cabinet and the other is a congressman. Now 41, they were barely old enough to vote when Hillary Clinton became first lady.
They share a surname with a pair of Communist dictators in Cuba who have bedevilled America for more than 50 years.
But the Castro brothers – Julian, US housing secretary, and Joaquin, who is in the House of Representatives – are central to Clinton’s plan to woo America’s growing Hispanic community. It now accounts for about 9 per cent of voters and could even help deliver her the White House.
Clinton has been basking in the afterglow of a commanding performance in the first Democratic debate last week and enjoying a much-needed bump in the polls.
But she is anxious to cement her advantage with minority voters in advance of the possible entry into the 2016 race of the vicepresident, Joe Biden.
He is said to be close to deciding whether to join the Democratic field dominated by Clinton and Bernie Sanders, the socialist senator embraced by white liberals but still viewed by party chiefs as an unlikely nominee.
Keen to signal she is focusing on next November’s general election, Clinton flew to San Antonio, Texas, and dropped heavy hints that Julian Castro could be her vice-presidential running mate.
Clinton ‘‘appeals to Americans of all backgrounds and colours, different perspectives and walks of life’’, Castro declared on a stage at Sunset station, with the former US secretary of state standing next to him, beaming.
She responded that Castro, a popular former mayor of San Antonio, was a great leader who ‘‘gives a really good speech’’. When asked earlier if Castro could be Biden’s successor, she responded: ‘‘I’m going to really look hard at him for anything because that’s how good he is.’’
Two of the leading Republican candidates, former Florida governor Jeb Bush and Florida senator Marco Rubio, are fluent Spanish speakers. Clinton advisers most fear Rubio because at 44 he could paint her as a candidate of the past.
If selected by Clinton, Julian Castro would be the first Hispanic vice-presidential candidate, and just two years older than Richard Nixon, the youngest vice-president of the modern era when he was elected in 1952.