Julian Castro becomes first Latino to enter race
Ex-Obama Cabinet member and San Antonio mayor brings youth and charisma to Democratic primaries.
Julian Castro, the former mayor of San Antonio and housing secretary under President Obama, launched an uphill bid for president Saturday, promising a youthful push behind a progressive agenda of environmentalism, economic equality and a more humane immigration policy.
Speaking at a sunsoaked rally in his hometown, Castro lashed out at President Trump and declared “a crisis of leadership” in the country, now mired in the longest government shutdown in history.
“Donald Trump has failed to uphold the values of our great nation,” Castro said, then went on to enumerate a number of pledges, including — as his first executive order — to recommit the United States to the worldwide effort to fight climate change.
His checklist fit squarely in the leftward reaches of the Democratic Party: Medicare for all, a higher minimum wage, a “Green New Deal” creating jobs through public works, expanding access to higher education, and protecting legal abortion and gay and lesbian rights.
Castro, whose grandmother came to the U.S. from Mexico, grew most animated discussing immigration policy, which is at the center of the stalemate shuttering portions of the federal government.
“Yeah, we have to have border security,” he said, then raised his voice to a shout. “But there’s a smart and a humane way to do it. And there is no way in hell that caging babies is a smart or a good or a right way to do it. We say no to building a wall and yes to building community.”
After visits last week to Iowa and Nevada, two earlyvoting states, Castro’s inaugural foray as a candidate will take him to a less-conventional stop, Puerto Rico, where he planned to address Latino activists on Sunday and visit with residents still struggling to recover from Hurricane Maria in 2017.
Castro, 44, brings diversity and a shot of youthful charisma to the nascent Democratic contest; he’s been called, in political shorthand, a Latino Barack Obama.
A native of San Antonio, Castro was elected to the City Council in 2001 at age 26 — its youngest member in history — and became mayor eight years later. (His identical twin, Joaquin, joined him on an educational path through Stanford and Harvard Law School and for the last six years has represented part of San Antonio and its suburbs in Congress.)
After twice winning reelection, Julian Castro stepped down as mayor in 2014 to become secretary of Housing and Urban Development during Obama’s second term.
The presidential bid is Castro’s first attempt for elected office beyond the confines of Texas’ secondmost populous city. He enters the contest with little name recognition or political base beyond his home state.
He does, however, enjoy the distinction of being the only Latino in the Democratic field — for now, at least; Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, whose paternal grandfather was born in Mexico, is also contemplating a 2020 run for president.
So, too, is former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of El Paso, who poses potentially the greater challenge. His nearmiss 2018 Senate race against Republican incumbent Ted Cruz has turned O’Rourke into a national Democratic celebrity. If he runs, he would vie with Castro for Texas campaign cash and political support.
There is, local political observers say, also the question of whether Castro has the temperament to appeal to Democrats who fairly seethe with their loathing for Trump.
“His normal personal political style is friendly, affable, smiling, comfortable, approachable,” said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. “Whether or not he’s got a sharper edge when he needs it is something people will work to figure out.”
San Antonio leans Democratic, but Castro got on well with Republicans and the conservative-leaning business community there, said David Crockett of the city’s Trinity University.
Among Castro’s achievements was successful promotion of a 2012 ballot measure that boosted sales tax to expand pre-kindergarten education.
“He was not someone who came in as a rabblerouser to shake thing up,” said Crockett, who teaches political science and wrote a book on insurgent presidential candidates. “He was more of a nuts-and-bolts mayor, trying to run things efficiently. And he was pretty successful in that.”