There is a disturbing—and insulting—bipartisan trend among non-Latinos to assume that a Spanish surname is enough to garner Latino support. Among Republicans, that manifests in the fetishization of almost exclusively Cuban-American Latinos. Yet for several reasons, that has little impact on their ability to attract brown support.
There is a continued effort to promote Julian Castro as Hillary Clinton’s VP. The thinking seems to be that having a Latino surname on the ballot will help goose Latino turnout and support. However, his inclusion on the ballot would be akin to John McCain’s effort to woo women with Sarah Palin in 2008—the inclusion of an inexperienced candidate in order to pay lip service to a particular demographic.
Consider Castro’s resume: Mayor of San Antonio and secretary of HUD.
Using a mayorship as a springboard to the vice presidency is absurd on its face, but particularly so in San Antonio, which doesn’t endow its mayor with much power.
San Antonio's city government is a council-manager system. Unlike the strong-mayor governments of Chicago or New York, San Antonio's government is led by a city manager, which is appointed by the City Council. The city charter invests in the city manager the authority to "execute the laws and administer the government of the city."
To reflect those duties, San Antonio’s city manager makes $400,000. The mayor? A ridiculously low $4,000.
Now, the traditional path to a presidential ticket goes through the Senate or a governorship, but Castro is from Texas, a state that doesn’t give Democrats much of a statewide prayer. So he was appointed secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), presumably to give him federal experience in preparation for bigger things. But … HUD?
There are 15 cabinet secretaries. The first in order of presidential succession (and after the speaker and president pro tempore of the Senate) is the secretary of state, followed by the secretary of the treasury. HUD is all the way down at 10th, after the secretary of health and human services, but above the secretary of transportation. Per budget, HUD fares even worse, ranking 13th (after Health and Human Services, Social Security Administration, Defense, Agriculture, Veterans Affairs, Treasury, Labor, Transportation, Education, State, Homeland Security, and Intelligence). In fact, its $46 billion budget is just 1.2 percent of the overall federal budget.
It is, by the numbers and perception, a minor agency, and certainly not something upon which to hang a vice presidential bid. Castro’s resume is so thin, it makes Palin look overqualified in response. And she wasn’t qualified in the least. The fact that Castro is even in the conversation is an indictment of the Democratic Party’s inability to nurture Latino politicians. Our inability to win off-year elections, when most governorships are decided, only exacerbates the problem.
Yet people persist in promoting him because … Latino! But again, Latinos care less about a Spanish surname, and more about people who show genuine care and commitment for the Latino community. Whatever you think of Clinton, she has huge support and credibility among Latinos, in large part because she’s a member of the only major party in this country that values Latinos. The numbers above prove that beyond any doubt.
Would Castro add to that support? She’s pretty maxed out already. The 13 percent of Latinos who would vote for Trump aren’t going anywhere, no matter who else is on that VP ballot. And while generalizing about a community is always dangerous, Latinos in large part value age and experience over ambition and youth. That’s not to say that with some additional seasoning and some higher-level posts Castro can’t earn that respect, but to think he’ll get it now is myopic and, frankly, a bit insulting.
So this is the point where people inevitably say, “Well, who would YOU recommend?” Right now, the Latino Democratic bench is thin. The only Latino Democrat in the Senate is a crook. We have no governorships. Like I said, it’s an indictment of our party that we don’t have a deeper Latino bench. But like I said, that’s a problem exacerbated by our woeful midterm turnout, and the fact that much of our Latino population is in red states like Texas and Arizona doesn’t help. But still, no excuse.
Modern vice presidents don’t deliver geography or demographics. Joe Lieberman didn’t deliver the pious, and Sarah Palin didn’t deliver women. Al Gore didn’t deliver Tennessee, and Paul Ryan didn’t deliver Wisconsin, and Joe Biden didn’t deliver white men. (Edit: Clinton/Gore did win Tennessee twice, but Gore lost it during his presidential bid.)
The best VP candidates are attack-dog partisans, able to rally the base while allowing the top of the ticket to remain above the fray. Think Dick Cheney. My current favorite is Elijah Cummings after watching him shred Republicans on the Benghazi inquisition, but there are any number of others who could fit the bill.
Point is, don’t assume Latinos are so shallow that a Spanish surname will sweep us off our feet. It doesn’t work that way, so don’t insult us by jumping to that conclusion.