Castro adds a local voice to the debate
It is said to be an uphill battle, but it is important and noteworthy nonetheless.
We speak of Julián Castro’s presidential bid. He is from San Antonio’s West Side and comes from a family with not-so-distant immigrant roots (in Mexico) at a time when the president has fighting words for such immigrants. Simply, his personal story has particular resonance in this time and place. All together, this makes for a specific combination we can’t say fits any previous presidential candidate in our memory.
He is not a first — others have come from humble, perhaps humbler, beginnings, and others have been Latino. In that latter category, we remember businessman Ben Fernandez from decades ago, and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida running on the Republican side more recently. And there was Bill Richardson, former New Mexico governor, U.N. ambassador and energy secretary, on the Democratic side. But Castro, a former San Antonio mayor and HUD secretary, runs at a fraught time in our country. The culture war rages, over immigration in particular. This comes replete with demonization of immigrants, and amid charges that any desire for meaningful and comprehensive reform is code for being squarely for wide-open borders. Conversely, any legitimate concern for border security is cast as loathing brown people.
Both are odious simplifications.
Castro will not be alone in what is certain to be a crowded Democratic field in advocating a more humane and thoughtful approach. But we are nonetheless thankful that a voice from San Antonio will be raised on this issue. This city, more than many others, knows the truth and complexities of immigration — and diversity.
This is how Castro put it at his campaign launch Saturday: “Today, this community represents America’s future — diverse, fast-growing, optimistic, a place where people of different backgrounds come together.”
We are, as a city, something a nation would be better for emulating, even as we also exemplify some of the challenges facing the country.
But Castro, as one of the first to formally announce, reminds us also that immigration is not the sum total of any valid campaign on the Democratic side, though it is a topic in need of strenuous debate in both parties. Speaking from Guadalupe Plaza, he also stressed affordable housing, affordable and accessible health care, sane energy policy that views climate change as a real threat, a minimum-wage increase, income equality generally and prekindergarten education, crafting nationally what the city, led by Mayor Castro, accomplished. We look forward to an active debate in the Democratic Party on these issues — and on the Republican side as well. And we’re confident Castro will more than hold his own in this debate. In any case, the timing is impeccable for taking the national temperature on these issues, particularly on immigration.
Since his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in 2012 as mayor of the nation’s seventh-largest city, Castro has risen in stature in the party, and, yet, other candidates come out the chute with far better name recognition. This, though Castro was spoken of as a running mate for Hillary Clinton in 2016. And he likely won’t be the only Texas native son running.
We have no clue how his campaign will fare in these currents, whether it will thrive or flounder. Anyone who tries to anoint front-runners or candidates to be nominated this early in the race is on a fool’s errand. But we nonetheless welcome the San Antonio voice that will be part of this election.
There is much that will make this run historic — particularly if it is successful — but it is the addition of this voice and the timing that make it even more so for us.