This should have been posted this morning, but I was sick yesterday. Sorry that it’s late. This continues my series (begun here and continued here ) profiling our vast Democratic POTUS candidate field not by “electability” nor by platform (topics for other diaries), but looking for life experience(s) that break the typical “cookie cutter” politician mold and which can both connect them to ordinary American voters and/or help them govern.
Given her exciting book tour, I almost made this week’s profile on Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), but I will wait until she announces or, at least, forms an exploratory committee.
Julian Castro, former Mayor of San Antonio and former head of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) under President Obama, announced his candidacy Saturday in his hometown of San Antonio. His amazing keynote speech at the DNC in 2012 made him look like a rising star in Democratic circles, but he has faded from the spotlight. But this is not a diary on whether or not he “missed his chance” or whether Beto O’Rourke has a better chance of flipping TX, etc. All that speculation will be cleared up by, having, you know, actual primaries and seeing the results. This diary looks at what life experiences Castro would bring to the office.
Castro was born 16 September 1974, one minute before his identical twin brother, Rep. Joachin Castro (D-TX-20). I think the experience of being a twin (something no other POTUS has been) begins Castro’s “unique life experience.” Will this give him unique insights into identity, differentiation, and unity that could help our country in a divided era? I don’t know, but it is worth considering.
Castro was born to Maria “Rosie” Castro and Jesse Guzman, both Mexican-American citizens. His parents never married and Guzman, a retired mathematics teacher and political activist, left the family when Julian and Joachin were 8 years old. Their mother was one of the founders of La Raza Unida (The United People), a Chicano political action group. She ran unsuccessfully for the City Council of San Antonio in 1971 and she often took her sons with her to organizational meetings. Both Castros credit her influence for both their success and their interest in public life.
Castro is a 3rd generation Mexican-American. His grandmother, Victoria Castro, joined extended family members in Texas in 1920 as an orphaned girl from northern Mexico.
So, what do we have so far: If elected, Castro would be the 1st Mexican-American POTUS, the first Latinx POTUS (and the 2nd, after former NM Gov. Bill Richardson, to run), the first twin POTUS, the 3rd POTUS raised by a single mother (Bill Clinton was the first, and Barack Obama the 2nd), and the first POTUS whose parents never married. Now, that makes Castro far more like the emerging America than the traditional one.
Castro went to public primary and secondary schools, graduating 9th in his class from Thomas Jefferson High School in San Antonio. He played sports (football, basketball, and tennis) and was offered a football scholarship to Trinity University in San Antonio, an NCAA Division III school founded by Presbyterians and part of the Annapolis Group of colleges and universities who put major emphasis on the liberal arts. Wanting to see more of the world, the Castro brothers instead went to Stanford University, the so-called “Harvard of the West.” He credits affirmative action for his admission to Stanford since he scored a cumulative 1210 on his SATs, which is respectable, but far from the highest profile. He says that he is a proponent of affirmative action because it worked so well in his own life and that of his brother.
At Stanford, Castro earned a B.A. in Political Science and Communications. Stanford is an elite school, but, if elected POTUS, Castro would be only the 2nd POTUS to have graduated from Stanford—and the 1st was Herbert Hoover, so I’m sure that Stanford would want someone else to point to, despite the Hoover Institution’s presence on their campus. While at Stanford, Castro interned at the White House during Bill Clinton’s administration.
He then entered Harvard University Law School in 1997 and graduated with his Juris Doctor (J.D.) in 2000. This, frankly, is the most “cookie cutter” part of Castro’s background. Seven U. S. Presidents (John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Rutherford B. Hayes, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama) went to Harvard either as undergraduates or as law school students (or, in the case of George W. Bush, a student of Harvard Business School), more than any other educational institution. Of course, as a Mexican-American, Castro’s experience there would be different than the typical student from an elite background.
One aspect of Castro’s background which is surprising is that he does not speak Spanish. Nor does his twin, Joachin. Latinx-Americans were often punished in school for speaking Spanish, especially during his mother’s generation, so she spoke only English in their home. At Stanford, Julian took Latin and Japanese and Joachin took Latin and German. I do not know if this will make it harder for him to mobilize Latinx behind his candidacy (it does make an interesting contrast with his fellow Texan, Beto O’Rourke, who is white but fluent in Spanish!). I do know that he has remarked that, as an adult, he felt weird about it and has determined to become fluent in Spanish. It definitely goes to show that stereotypes are foolish and that everyone’s experience is unique.
He and his brother worked for the international law firm, Akin, Gum, Strauss, Hauer, & Feld before opening their own firm in 2005. He was elected to the City Council of San Antonio in 2001. At age 26, he was the youngest city councilor in San Antonio history and Castro won 61% of the vote against 5 challengers.
He ran for Mayor of San Antonio in 2005 and lost. I think losses early in a political career can make one a better candidate later and apparently that was the case, since Castro ran again in 2009 and won. He was Mayor of San Antonio until nominated as Secretary of HUD by Barack Obama in 2014. He was confirmed as HUD Secretary by a vote of 71-26.
As mentioned above, Castro gave the keynote DNC address in 2012—which I found electrifying.
His political views have been “mainstream liberal” as a Democrat. He has been an outspoken champion of LGBT rights for his entire political career, long before that became widespread in Democratic circles. Other than that, I can’t find anything that marks him out from fellow liberal Democrats.
Castro is married (2007) to Erica Lira, an elementary school teacher. They have two children, a girl, Carina (b. 2009) and a boy, Christian (b. 2014).
He is Roman Catholic, but it doesn’t get prominently mentioned as a major force in his biography (unlike, say, Joe Biden). I don’t know if this means that Castro is more of a cultural Catholic than a strong believer or if he just is private about his faith. Regardless, if elected, he would be the 2nd Catholic president.
He would be the 2nd POTUS from TX and if he adopted LBJ’s “Great Society,” that would warm my liberal heart, but I would hope his foreign policy would be much different.
I am watching the entire field before making my own primary decision. These profiles are not endorsements nor warnings. I simply think that looking at life experience can give us another useful metric in evaluating candidates.
I definitely think the country is ready for a Chicano president. It would be a breath of fresh air after Trump’s demonization of all non-white peoples. I will be keeping a close eye on Julian Castro.