Getty Julian Castro, the former mayor of San Antonio, is likely to run for president in 2020, per a RollingStone interview.
Julian Castro, the former mayor of San Antonio who became a big Democratic contender after his speech at the 2012 Democratic National Convention, is likely running for president in 2020.
The news comes after several months of speculation, but he set the record straight with RollingStone in an interview released October 15. He said, “I’m likely to do it. I’ll make a final decision after November, but I’m inclined to do it.”
Later on in the interview, he further elaborated, “My daughter’s nine and my son is three. My wife, Erica, has been wonderful throughout my time in public service. We’re going to take a long, hard look at what that kind of commitment would mean. And as I travel between now and Election Day, I’m getting a better and better sense of where the country is at. I don’t feel compelled to make a rushed decision. However, I’m likely to do it. I have a strong vision for the country. I believe that our country’s going in the wrong direction and that it needs new leadership. I’ll make a final decision after November, but I’m inclined to do it.”
Here’s what you need to know.
Castro Was the First Latino to Give a Keynote Address at the Democratic National Convention
Castro’s speech at the 2012 Democratic National Convention is one of the political endeavors he’s most known for. At one point in his speech, he said, “The unlikely journey that brought me here tonight began many miles from this podium. My brother Joaquin and I grew up with my mother Rosie and my grandmother Victoria. My grandmother was an orphan. As a young girl, she had to leave her home in Mexico and move to San Antonio, where some relatives had agreed to take her in. She never made it past the fourth grade. She had to drop out and start working to help her family. My grandmother spent her whole life working as a maid, a cook and a babysitter, barely scraping by, but still working hard to give my mother, her only child, a chance in life, so that my mother could give my brother and me an even better one.”
He continued, “My family’s story isn’t special. What’s special is the America that makes our story possible. Ours is a nation like no other, a place where great journeys can be made in a single generation. No matter who you are or where you come from, the path is always forward.”
Castro’s opening phrase (an unlikely journey) is now the title of his upcoming memoir, “An Unlikely Journey: Waking Up From My American Dream.”
Casto Told RollingStone That the 2020 Election Will Be ‘Cathartic’ For the Democratic Party
To RollingStone, Castro said that he believed the 2020 election will be “cathartic” for the Democratic Party. He said, “It’s going to be cathartic for the party to go through a process where everybody gets to show what they’ve got. Where you have debates with over a dozen people and every wing of the party is represented.”
He continued, “We need to go through that to get over 2016, and we’re going to come out of the 2020 primary, I’m convinced, in a much stronger position. The nominee will be stronger for it and be better prepared to win in November of 2020. I’m hopeful, and I think realistically hopeful, about what this very contested, long, drawn-out process is going to mean. Most of the time a party wants to avoid that kind of process, but in this case, that’s our salvation.”
As for the message of the party, he said,
“I’m convinced that people need to know what your plan is to make things better for them and their family in a way that reflects the times that we live in, when people are worried about losing their job to automation or worried about the impact of this erratic trade war that Donald Trump is engaged in, worried about the escalating cost of going to college.
“Each of the folks who has won as a Democrat in the modern era — whether it was Kennedy or Carter or Clinton or Obama — articulated a powerful vision for the future. The 2020 Democratic nominee will have to do that. You’re not going to get that outside of a presidential race. That kind of leadership is not necessarily going to come out of Washington, D.C. That’s not the business of the DSCC or the DCCC or even the DNC. It’s not going to come from there. It’s going to come out of this 2020 process.”