Castro kicks off presidential bid in San Antonio
Former mayor, HUD chief jumps early into growing Democratic fray
NORTH LIBERTY, Iowa — At a potluck gathering in Iowa last week, former San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro gave voters a taste of the campaign that he officially launched Saturday for the Democratic presidential nomination, a bid that likely will become a rallying point for Hispanic voters and could propel Texas back onto the national political stage.
Castro told the gathering of his immigrant grandmother, who lost a foot to diabetes and later her life to complications from the disease.
“She had medicine, and Medicare enabled her care,” Castro said, urging support for a socalled Medicare for All approach. Health care “should not depend first on the profit of Big Pharma or any other industry.”
His mother, Rosie, a longtime Latina activist, warned voters that her son should not be underestimated as she introduced him on the stage of Plaza Guadalupe.
“He is a man who sets his goals and then proceeds to get everybody behind those goals to make it happen,” she said.
Castro, 44, served as San Antonio mayor from 2009 until 2014 and then as President Barack Obama’s housing secretary. His announcement was broadcast live on C-SPAN’s “Road to the White House.”
He became an early entrant in what likely will be a jammed field of a dozen or more Democrats competing for a nomination that is viewed as especially significant given the party’s strong feelings about President Donald Trump.
Plaza Guadalupe is situated blocks from where Castro and his twin brother, Joaquin, a congressman from San Antonio, went to middle school. The brothers arrived on the same bus line that they rode down Guadalupe Street as boys, chatting about life and policy on Facebook Live.
“There are no frontrunners that are born here,” Castro told the crowd, referring to the West Side neighborhood. “But I always believed that with big dreams and hard work, anything is possible in this country.
“Today,” he continued, “this community represents America’s future — diverse, fast-growing, optimistic, a place where people of different backgrounds come together.”
Castro embraced a litany of progressive issues, among them the need for immigration reform, a minimum-wage increase, socalled Medicare for All national health insurance and more affordable housing, an issue he intends to stress in the campaign.
He said he would press for national prekindergarten education, an issue he championed in San Antonio.
Castro said rejoining the Paris Agreement on climate change would be his first act as president.
“Scientists tell us that if we don’t get serious about this right now, the consequences will be tragic,” he said.
He said that he wouldn’t “take a dime” of PAC money to finance his campaign, and that he would seek to overturn Citizens United, the Supreme Court decision that allows corporations and unions to give unlimited contributions to political action committees.
Castro announced that his brother will chair the campaign and that Maya Rupert, whom he worked with at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, will be campaign manager.
Another former HUD staffer, Jennifer Fiore, was named senior adviser.
Houston lawyer Scott Atlas will operate as the finance chair and Derek Eadon, an Iowan who worked for the Obama campaigns, will be deputy campaign manager.
Castro’s announcement comes a day after Hawaii U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, an Iraq War veteran who is largely unknown even to most Democrats, said that she, too, intends to run for president.
California Sen. Kamala Harris said Thursday that she “might” run, fueling more speculation about her likely candidacy. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who declared her intentions recently, was the first major candidate to run.
Many more candidates are likely to emerge before the party hopefuls gather in June to debate, the first of six debates for 2019 in a schedule prepared by the Democratic National Committee. Debates may occur on consecutive nights to accommodate the bulging field, an effort to avoid the GOP experience in 2016 when candidates polling weakly were relegated to what became known as the “kiddie table.”
Republicans swiftly pounced on Castro. A Republican National Committee spokesman put out a statement calling him “one of the biggest lightweights to ever run for president.”
James Dickey, chairman of the Texas GOP, skewered Castro for staking out what he referred to as far-left positions on issues, including Medicare for All.
Dickey said he isn’t worried about the potential effects of a Texan becoming the Democratic nominee. In addition to Castro, former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke has been eyeing a bid.
But the day was for Castro and his supporters.
Paul Smith, who donned a “Make America Sane Again” hat, said he would be supporting Castro in the primary.
“I’ve been a fan of Julián since he became mayor, and I was very impressed with his speech at the (2012 Democratic National Convention),” he said.
For Nancy Villarreal, Castro’s Hispanic roots are of extra import. She made a Castro 2020 shirt with the inscription, “Si se puede,” Spanish for “Yes we can.”
“I just felt like we needed to come out and show our support,” she said.
In Iowa, which opens the primary season with precinct caucuses on Feb. 3, 2020, Castro made a strong first impression on Leann Cortimigli, who said after his pitch that she expects him to rise to the first tier of candidates.
“He reminds me of a young Barack Obama,” said Cortimigli, 60.
But Carolyn Shultz, 21, suggested that Castro fell short on projecting urgency, potentially useful advice for a politician given to measured tones and easy humor rather than bursts of outrage. Many in Iowa had turned out days earlier to take in Warren’s brand of edgy politics.
“I don’t think he has the spark. I don’t think he’s angry enough. I’m angry,” she said.
In Iowa, Castro was emphatic on a point that candidates like to make these days. “I’m not from Washington,” he said, “and I believe that we need to change the culture of Washington.” A jarring career change
Two years ago, Washington looked pretty good to Castro. Hardly anyone thought Hillary Clinton would lose, including Castro, who had spent 2½ years running HUD. He thought he’d land in her administration; preliminary discussions had taken place.
“I expected that I would continue to serve in some capacity in a new administration,” Castro said recently.
In “An Unlikely Journey,” Castro’s autobiography published in October, he recalled the shock of Election Night, which he spent in New York with a room full of VIPs. He went back to his hotel and collapsed on the bed in disbelief as the returns came in. When he awakened a few hours later, Trump’s victory was assured, and Castro’s future was uncertain.
The next day, he phoned his wife, Erica, to say they would be returning home to San Antonio, perhaps where he would run for something. But a race for governor of Texas in 2018 never held much appeal.
Castro’s plan to seek the White House took shape swiftly, interviews with him and allies suggest.
He had experienced the national limelight, relishing the “rising star” label after being selected by Obama to deliver the keynote speech at the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte.
Castro traveled widely at HUD and has continued to do so, visiting more than 40 states at last count. And he’d landed on a list of finalists to become Clinton’s 2016 running mate, endured the vetting and even taken a physical. He slid down in the order when the Clinton campaign concluded that a Latino on the ticket was unneeded as a rallying tool given Trump’s vilification of Hispanic immigrants.
In weighing a candidacy, it seemed a good bet to Castro that voters would be weary of a mercurial president buffeted by investigations and intent on selecting a replacement who looked to be fundamentally honest.
He also calculated, rightly or wrongly, that voters would be in the market for a candidate from a younger generation. Early on, he took stock of Democrats who’d won the White House in their 40s: John F. Kennedy (43); Bill Clinton (46) and Obama (47).
In a party riven by feuding between Clinton backers and devotees of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Castro saw himself appealing to both camps.
If there were doubts about running, they were erased by Democrats’ success in recapturing the U.S. House in November’s midterm election, with a net gain of 40 seats — some of them won by candidates Castro supported during his travels last year.
“I picked up on what people were thinking, and I sensed that this race is wide open,” Castro said.
Last month, some 20 potential funders for Castro gathered at a downtown San Antonio law office, invited by Atlas.
Candidates’ viability will be measured early by their capacity to rake in cash, and Castro’s vow to forgo PAC contributions could complicate that task. But he left the meeting confident, he says, that his campaign can compete in the money chase.
“A lot of people who have supported me for a long time are eager to activate their networks to raise money,” he said. Breakthrough scenario?
Since the last quarter of the 20th century, success in the Iowa caucuses or the New Hampshire primary eight days later has been the sure path to success. Not winning or placing near the top in those two states has forced many from both parties to abandon their races, bereft of donor support.
Castro’s allies believe that expectations might have changed in the era of Trump. Castro speaks confidently about contending in the early going. But supporters pin their hopes on the front-loaded primary schedule.
Caucuses in Nevada, where Hispanics make up 28 percent of the population, follow New Hampshire. Then, after the South Carolina primary, Texas and California, home to more than half the nation’s Latinos, are among the nine states expected to have Super Tuesday primaries on March 3.
Jeremy Bird, for one, believes the clout of Iowa could be diminished this cycle by the volume of candidates dividing support. He broke down where Castro might fit in the competition.
“He will be in the younger, more outsider category, perhaps the only Latino, somebody who has been a mayor, somebody who has the benefit of not being from a blue coastal state. And, I think, he is someone with a lot of personal characteristics that are unique in the field,” said Bird, who leads a project to train campaign staff for 2020.
“He is somebody who has the potential to break out,” he added.
In December, a tracking poll of 2,800 Latinos around the country pointed to the impact Castro’s candidacy could have on Latino turnout in 2020. The survey, sponsored by the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, found that twothirds of Latino voters said they would be more likely to vote Democratic if a Latino was on the ballot.
In interviews, Castro described the highly digital campaign he will run.
Castro said that Democrats in Iowa and elsewhere can expect to see ads online asking them to take part in his campaign and raise money.
“Every aspect of the campaign, from communications to organizing to fundraising, runs through digital media these days,” he said.
Little has changed during Castro’s planning other than the emergence of O’Rourke. The former El Paso congressman’s adroit use of Facebook and his gaudy fundraising hauls last year ($38 million in a single quarter) may be a factor in his leapfrogging other potential candidates in recent polls.
Castro gets questions about O’Rourke wherever he goes. “Is it Julián’s time or is it Beto’s time?” he was asked at a radio station in San Antonio this week.
Castro asserted that neither O’Rourke’s entry or that of any other contestant will alter the course of his pursuit.
“I’m going to articulate a strong positive vision for the country and give people something to believe in, not just to be against. I know who I have to reach and how I want it to resonate. And we’re going to do that,” he said.