Julian Castro, that other Texan in the race, got his own Vanity Fair story today. I stole the title.
“I didn’t grow up a front-runner, and so it doesn’t faze me that right now, 46 weeks before the Iowa caucus, that I’m not a front-runner,” Castro says when I ask if he’s frustrated by the glut of O’Rourke coverage. “There are a lot of people that don’t feel like they’re a front-runner in life in the United States right now. I’m confident that by the time people actually vote that I’m going to be doing very well.”
This diary previously misquoted the Secretary as “didn’t grow up to be a front runner. Thanks to CatteNappe for graciously pointing it out.
And that’s the thing. Julian and Joaquin Castro grew up with a single mother in San Antonio and went to public schools. They learned to push each other forward towards a goal that few of his friends thought even achievable. Not only did they get into college but they took night classes their junior year to graduate a year early. And the journey had just begun.
When he talks about Trump and immigration, Castro speaks with a personal edge none of the other candidates can claim. “It pisses me off,” he says. “It’s shameful. It’s impacting the lives of so many vulnerable people, and it’s bad for our country.”
Castro spoke to a Chicano Studies class at UCLA last month. The overflow crowd was estimated by the professor to be over 1,000 people.
“Other politicians talk about their humble upbringings to try to sound relatable, but with Castro it’s genuine. The kids could see their lives in him, and he could get real traction with Latinos and younger voters.”
And, apparently, the Reverend Al Sharpton agrees.
“Don’t sleep on Julián.”