Julián Castro ( , ; born September 16, 1974) is an American lawyer and politician from
San Antonio
("Cradle of Freedom")
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. A member of the
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
*Botswana Democratic Party
*Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*Demo ...
, he was the youngest member of
President Obama's cabinet, serving as the 16th
United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
The United States secretary of housing and urban development (or HUD secretary) is the head of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, a member of the president's Cabinet
Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to:
Furnitur ...
from 2014 to 2017. Castro served as the
mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...
of his native
San Antonio
("Cradle of Freedom")
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, map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = United States
, subdivision_type1= State
, subdivision_name1 = Texas
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,
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
from 2009 until he joined
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
's
cabinet in 2014.
Castro was mentioned as a possible running mate for
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
during the
2016 presidential campaign
This national electoral calendar for 2016 lists the national/ federal elections held in 2016 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included.
January
*7 January: Kiri ...
. He is the twin brother of Congressman
Joaquin Castro. On January 12, 2019, Castro launched his
campaign
Campaign or The Campaign may refer to:
Types of campaigns
* Campaign, in agriculture, the period during which sugar beets are harvested and processed
*Advertising campaign, a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme
* Bl ...
for the Democratic nomination for
President of the United States
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...
in
2020
2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...
in San Antonio. He dropped out of the presidential race on January 2, 2020, endorsing
the candidacy of
Elizabeth Warren
Elizabeth Ann Warren ( née Herring; born June 22, 1949) is an American politician and former law professor who is the senior United States senator from Massachusetts, serving since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party and regarded as a ...
soon after.
[
]
Early life and family
Castro was born in San Antonio
("Cradle of Freedom")
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, map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = United States
, subdivision_type1= State
, subdivision_name1 = Texas
, subdivision_t ...
, Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
, the son of Maria "Rosie" Castro and Jessie Guzman. He is the identical twin
Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two ...
brother of current United States Representative
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...
Joaquin Castro; Julián is one minute older than Joaquin: they were born at 2:40 and 2:41 am, respectively.
Castro is of Mexican descent. His mother is a Chicana political activist who helped establish the Chicano political party La Raza Unida, and who ran for the San Antonio City Council
The San Antonio City Council is the legislative arm of the municipal government of the city of San Antonio in the U.S. state of Texas. It consists of 10 members elected from single-member districts.
San Antonio has a council-manager form of gov ...
in 1971. Castro once stated, "My mother is probably the biggest reason that my brother and I are in public service. Growing up, she would take us to a lot of rallies and organizational meetings and other things that are very boring for an 8-, 9-, 10-year-old". His father, Jessie Guzman, is a retired mathematics teacher and political activist. Never married, Rosie and Jessie separated when Castro and his brother were eight years old. Castro's Texan roots trace back to 1920, when his grandmother Victoria Castro joined extended family members there as a six-year-old orphan from northern Mexico.
Education
Castro attended Thomas Jefferson High School in San Antonio, where he played football, basketball and tennis; he also collected trading cards. He skipped his sophomore year and graduated in 1992, ranking ninth in his class. He had received an offer to play tennis at Trinity University, an NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...
Division III
In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below.
Association football
*Belgian Thir ...
school in his hometown, but chose to attend Stanford University, along with his twin brother Joaquin.
Castro graduated from Stanford in 1996 with a bachelor's degree in political science and communications. He said he began thinking about entering politics while at Stanford, where he and his brother launched their first campaigns and won student senate seats, tying for the highest number of votes. Castro has credited affirmative action for his admission into Stanford, telling ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', "Joaquin and I got into Stanford because of affirmative action. I scored 1210 on my SAT
The SAT ( ) is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States. Since its debut in 1926, its name and scoring have changed several times; originally called the Scholastic Aptitude Test, it was later called the Schol ...
s, which was lower than the median matriculating student. But I did fine in college and in law school. So did Joaquin. I’m a strong supporter of affirmative action because I’ve seen it work in my own life". Between his sophomore and junior years, Castro worked as an intern at the White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...
during the presidency of Bill Clinton.
Castro entered Harvard Law School in 1997 and graduated with a Juris Doctor in 2000. His brother graduated from both schools with him. After law school, the two brothers worked for the law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP is an American multinational law firm headquartered in Washington, DC. It is the largest lobbying firm in the United States by revenue. Akin Gump has consistently been ranked as among the top law firms in the Un ...
before starting their own firm in 2005.
In 2018, Castro was named as the Dean's Distinguished Fellow and Fellow of the Dávila Chair in International Trade Policy at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs
The Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs (or LBJ School of Public Affairs) is a graduate school at the University of Texas at Austin that was founded in 1970 to offer training in public policy analysis and administration for students that ar ...
.
San Antonio city council
In 2001, Castro was elected to the San Antonio City Council
The San Antonio City Council is the legislative arm of the municipal government of the city of San Antonio in the U.S. state of Texas. It consists of 10 members elected from single-member districts.
San Antonio has a council-manager form of gov ...
, winning 61 percent of the vote against five challengers. At age 26 he was the youngest city councilman in San Antonio history, surpassing Henry Cisneros, who won his council seat in 1975 at age 27. Castro represented District 7, a precinct on the city's west side with 115,000 residents. The population was 70 percent Hispanic and included a large number of senior citizens. As a councilman from 2001 to 2005, he opposed a PGA-approved golf course and large-scale real estate development on the city's outer rim.
Mayor of San Antonio
Castro ran for mayor of San Antonio in 2005 and was widely viewed as the front runner in a field that also included retired judge Phil Hardberger
Phillip Duane Hardberger (born July 27, 1934) is an American politician and lawyer who served as mayor of San Antonio, taking office in June, 2005. A Democrat, he was elected on a non-partisan ballot.
Life and career Family and early years
Hard ...
and conservative city councilman Carroll Schubert. He was defeated by approximately 4000 votes when Hardberger received 51.5% of the votes in the runoff. Following his election defeat, Castro established his own law practice.
Castro ran for mayor of San Antonio again in 2009. Castro hired Christian Archer, who had run Hardberger's campaign in 2005, to run his own 2009 campaign. Castro won the election on May 9, 2009 with 56.23% of the vote, his closest opponent being Trish DeBerry-Mejia. He became the fifth Latino mayor in the history of San Antonio. He was the youngest mayor of a top-50 American city. Castro easily won re-election in 2011 and 2013, receiving 82.9% of the vote in 2011[Bexar County, Texas Joint General & Special May 14, 2011](_blank)
, www.bexar.org and 67% of the vote in 2013.
In 2010, Castro created SA2020, a community-wide visioning effort. It generated a list of goals created by the people of San Antonio based on their collective vision for San Antonio in the year 2020. SA2020 then became a nonprofit organization tasked with turning that vision into a reality. Castro also established Cafe College in 2010, offering college guidance to San Antonio-area students. In 2012 he led a voter referendum to expand pre-kindergarten education. Castro persuaded two of the most prominent businessmen in San Antonio, Charles Butt
Charles Clarence Butt (born February 3, 1938) is an American heir and billionaire. He inherited his family's San Antonio–based H-E-B supermarket chain in 1971. The privately held company has more than 300 stores and $31 billion in sales, acc ...
and Joe Robles, to lead an effort to pass a $30 million sales tax to fund the pre-kindergarten education program.
In March 2010, Castro was named to the World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...
's list of Young Global Leaders. Later that year, ''Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
'' magazine placed him on its "40 under 40" list of rising stars in American politics.
Castro gained national attention in 2012 when he was the first Hispanic to deliver the keynote address
A keynote in public speaking is a talk that establishes a main underlying theme. In corporate or commercial settings, greater importance is attached to the delivery of a keynote speech or keynote address. The keynote establishes the framework f ...
at a Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. Following the 2012 elections, Castro declined the position of United States Secretary of Transportation, partly with an eye on running for governor of Texas after 2017. However, in 2014, Castro accepted President Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
's offer of the position of United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
The United States secretary of housing and urban development (or HUD secretary) is the head of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, a member of the president's Cabinet
Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to:
Furnitur ...
. Castro resigned as mayor effective July 22, 2014, so that he could take up his duties in Washington. The San Antonio City Council elected councilmember Ivy Taylor
Ivy Ruth Taylor (born June 17, 1970) is the president of Rust College in Holly Springs, Mississippi, and the former Mayor of San Antonio, Texas, from 2014 through 2017. The former politician and urban planner was a nonpartisan officeholder, alt ...
to replace him.
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
On May 22, 2014, the White House announced Castro as the nominee to be the next secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) by President Barack Obama. He was confirmed by the Senate on July 9, 2014 by a vote of 71-26 and replaced Shaun Donovan, who was nominated to be the Director of the Office of Management and Budget
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). OMB's most prominent function is to produce the president's budget, but it also examines agency programs, pol ...
. He took office on July 28, 2014. Following the announcement, Castro was discussed as a potential nominee for vice president for the Democratic Party in the 2016 presidential election.
On July 28, 2014, his first day in office, Castro was honored at a reception called "Celebrating Latino Cabinet Members" hosted by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) is a Hispanic nonprofit and nonpartisan 501(c)(3) leadership development organization established in 1978 by organizing members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) and is headquartered in ...
.
Upon exiting office in 2017, Castro's final memo outlined various accomplishments of the department under his leadership. These areas included HUD's work to stabilize the housing market, rebuild communities struck by natural disasters through a $1 billion National Disaster Resilience Competition, expansion of lead safety protections in federally assisted housing, and the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule to "finally fulfill the full obligation of the Fair Housing Act.
2016 presidential election
On October 15, 2015, Castro endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. When Clinton was asked if Castro could be her pick for vice president, she said, "I am going to look really hard at him for anything because that's how good he is." Discussion of Castro as a candidate to run on the Democratic ticket with Hillary Clinton increased markedly in January 2016, as the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries approached. In late January, Castro began to campaign for Clinton in Iowa, a move interpreted as a test of his appeal to the electorate. In July 2016, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel issued a finding that Castro had violated the Hatch Act by commenting on the 2016 campaign while giving an interview in an official capacity; Castro admitted the error and ordered his team to improve training on the Hatch Act.
Memoir
In October 2018, Castro published his memoir, ''An Unlikely Journey: Waking Up from My American Dream'' through Little, Brown and Company
Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emily ...
.
2020 presidential campaign
In 2018, Castro visited the first in the nation New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the nor ...
primary state, and delivered the commencement address at New England College
New England College (NEC) is a private liberal arts college in Henniker, New Hampshire. As of Fall 2020 New England College's enrollment was 4,327 students (1,776 undergraduate and 2,551 graduate). The college is regionally accredited by the N ...
in Henniker, New Hampshire
Henniker is a town in Merrimack County, New Hampshire, United States. As of the 2020 census, the reported total population of the town was 6,185, although the figure, 27.9% greater than the 2010 population, has been questioned by local officials. ...
, on May 12, 2018. Castro stated that he would make his decision on whether to run in 2020 after the November 2018 mid-term elections. On December 12, 2018, Castro announced the formation of an exploratory committee. The next day, during an episode of ''The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
''The Late Show with Stephen Colbert'' is an American late-night news and liberal political satire talk show hosted by Stephen Colbert, which premiered on September 8, 2015. Produced by Spartina Productions and CBS Studios, it is the second ...
'', Julián's brother Joaquin (during a joint appearance by both brothers) stated that he confidently believed that Julián will be running for president.
Castro formally announced his candidacy for the 2020 presidential election on January 12, 2019 at a rally in San Antonio, TX. His brother, Congressman Joaquín Castro, and their mother introduced him at the rally. Castro would have been the first Democratic presidential nominee since 1924 to not have first served as vice president, governor or senator, and the first Hispanic or Latino
''Hispanic'' and '' Latino'' are ethnonyms used to refer collectively to the inhabitants of the United States who are of Spanish or Latin American ancestry (). While the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, for example, by the United States ...
nominee for president. He was the first Texan in the 2020 race and would have been the third-youngest president if elected. In his announcement, Castro emphasized Medicare-For-All, universal pre-K, and a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants as part of comprehensive immigration reform
Comprehensive may refer to:
*Comprehensive layout, the page layout of a proposed design as initially presented by the designer to a client.
*Comprehensive school, a state school that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement o ...
. In 2019, he purchased a Fox News
The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...
ad in order to speak directly to Donald Trump about the El Paso shooting. Despite referring to his healthcare plan as Medicare for All
Single-payer healthcare is a type of universal healthcare in which the costs of essential healthcare for all residents are covered by a single public system (hence "single-payer").
Single-payer systems may contract for healthcare services from ...
, his position was actually a public option rather than the single-payer plan proposed by Bernie Sanders and Pramila Jayapal
Pramila Jayapal ( ; born September 21, 1965) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative from since 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, she represents most of Seattle, as well as some suburban areas of King County. Jayapal ...
.
Castro's performance in the second night of the first debate was praised, with many pundits considering him to have been the "breakout star" of the night, and to have been one of the "winners" of the debate.
During the third Democratic Presidential Debate, Castro was accused of ageism after he attacked Joe Biden in a heated exchange over health care plans with Castro taunting Biden saying "Are you forgetting what you just said two minutes ago", repeating it multiple times. Castro was rebuked for his remarks by various members of the candidates on stage including, Andrew Yang
Andrew Yang (born January 13, 1975) is an American businessman, attorney, lobbyist, and politician. Yang was a candidate in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries and the 2021 New York City Democratic mayoral primary. He is the co-c ...
, Amy Klobuchar, and Pete Buttigieg. Castro was widely criticized for what was seen as a "low blow", and with many accusing Castro of "bullying", and engaging in "ageism
Ageism, also spelled agism, is discrimination against individuals or groups on the basis of their age. The term was coined in 1969 by Robert Neil Butler to describe discrimination against seniors, and patterned on sexism and racism. Butler d ...
". Journalist Gayle King
Gayle King (born December 28, 1954) is an American television personality, author and broadcast journalist for CBS News, co-hosting its flagship morning program, '' CBS Mornings'', and before that its predecessor ''CBS This Morning''. She is ...
saw the interaction as a "personal attack". On ''The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
''The Late Show with Stephen Colbert'' is an American late-night news and liberal political satire talk show hosted by Stephen Colbert, which premiered on September 8, 2015. Produced by Spartina Productions and CBS Studios, it is the second ...
'', Stephen Colbert
Stephen Tyrone Colbert ( ; born May 13, 1964) is an American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. He is best known for hosting the satirical Comedy Central program '' The Colbert Report'' from 2005 ...
described the interaction as both "mean and inaccurate", since Castro was factually incorrect in his attack against Biden according to Politifact.
Many remarked that the exchange was the beginning of the end of Castro's presidential campaign. Castro has defended his attack against Biden saying he "wouldn't do it differently" and insisted he wasn't making fun of Biden."
Castro suspended his presidential campaign on January 2, 2020. ''"¡Ganaremos un día!"'' he said in Spanish, which translates to "One day we'll win!"
On January 6, 2020, Castro endorsed Elizabeth Warren
Elizabeth Ann Warren ( née Herring; born June 22, 1949) is an American politician and former law professor who is the senior United States senator from Massachusetts, serving since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party and regarded as a ...
.
Post-presidential campaign
On January 6, 2020, Castro endorsed Senator Elizabeth Warren
Elizabeth Ann Warren ( née Herring; born June 22, 1949) is an American politician and former law professor who is the senior United States senator from Massachusetts, serving since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party and regarded as a ...
for president. The next day, he gave a speech formally supporting Warren during her campaign rally in Brooklyn, New York. Castro was a "partner" in Warren's presidential campaign but she failed to win Texas. Castro's political future is unknown. On June 2, 2020, he endorsed presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
In September 2020, Castro partnered with Lemonada Media to launch "Our America with Julián Castro", a weekly podcast
A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...
discussing America’s past and possibilities.
In October 2020, Castro joined the board of directors of the Center for American Progress
The Center for American Progress (CAP) is a public policy research and advocacy organization which presents a liberal viewpoint on economic and social issues. It has its headquarters in Washington, D.C.
The president and chief executive offic ...
, a center-left think tank founded by John Podesta
John David Podesta Jr. (born January 8, 1949) is an American Political consulting, political consultant who has served as Senior Advisor to the President of the United States, Senior Advisor to President Joe Biden for clean energy innovation an ...
.
On July 12, 2021, Castro joined NBC News
NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...
and MSNBC
MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and politi ...
as a political commentator.
Political positions
Economy
Castro "believes in balanced budgets". He also supports increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.
Trade
Castro is a supporter of national and international trade regulation. He has been a strong supporter of the North American Free Trade Agreement while serving as mayor of San Antonio, but has also said that the agreement should be renegotiated to "strengthen worker and environmental protections".
Education
Castro supports universal pre-kindergarten, and managed to institute a pre-kindergarten program for 4-year-olds, funded by higher local taxes, while serving as mayor of San Antonio. He also supports making the first two years of higher education
Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after comple ...
tuition-free.
Healthcare
Castro has called for universal health care and Medicare for All
Single-payer healthcare is a type of universal healthcare in which the costs of essential healthcare for all residents are covered by a single public system (hence "single-payer").
Single-payer systems may contract for healthcare services from ...
, and indicated he would consider funding such a program by raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy. He has supported the Affordable Care Act
The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and colloquially known as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by Pres ...
. His campaign's healthcare plan calls for a public option.
Environment
Castro supports the Paris climate accord
The Paris Agreement (french: Accord de Paris), often referred to as the Paris Accords or the Paris Climate Accords, is an international treaty on climate change. Adopted in 2015, the agreement covers climate change mitigation, adaptation, and ...
, and has criticized President Trump's withdrawal from the agreement. While in office, Castro worked with companies to promote their transition to renewable energy. He has voiced support for a Green New Deal
Green New Deal (GND) proposals call for public policy to address climate change along with achieving other social aims like job creation and reducing economic inequality. The name refers back to the New Deal, a set of social and economic refo ...
.
In the past, Castro has advocated for an "energy policy that includes fossil fuels" while also "pointing out the benefits of fossil fuel jobs".
Foreign policy
Syria
Castro has endorsed a gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria while also criticizing Trump's approach to the issue.
China
Castro voiced support for Hong Kong protesters. He wrote that "The United States must lead with our values and speak out for pro-democracy protestors in Hong Kong, and not allow American citizens to be bullied by an authoritarian government."
Campaign finance
Castro has stated that he is "not going to take any PAC money" as a presidential candidate, and has encouraged others to do the same. He had however formed a PAC (Opportunity First) in 2017 which mostly covered his running expenses while also donating to several dozen "young, progressive" Democratic politicians.
Social issues and civil rights
Abortion
Castro is pro-choice, and has "vigorously" opposed state laws limiting abortion access after the 20th week of pregnancy and other restrictions.
LGBTQ rights
Castro has been an advocate for LGBTQ rights
Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality.
Notably, , 33 ...
and, as mayor, opposed the law in Texas (later overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court) that denied legal recognition to same-sex marriages. He is also a member of Washington D.C. based think tank the Inter-American Dialogue. Castro was the first San Antonio mayor to serve as the grand marshal of the city's Pride Parade in 2009 and in 2011 led a push to offer domestic partner benefits in the city. In 2012, he joined mayors across the country in signing the "Mayors for the Freedom to Marry" petition for same-sex marriage equality.
Castro said in a tweet that transgender persons should be allowed to serve in the armed forces.
In his remarks during the first round of 2019 Democratic Presidential debates, Castro pledged to make abortions available to trans men
A trans man is a man who was assigned female at birth. The label of transgender man is not always interchangeable with that of transsexual man, although the two labels are often used in this way. ''Transgender'' is an umbrella term that inclu ...
, mistakenly referring to them as trans women
A trans woman or a transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity, may experience gender dysphoria, and may transition; this process commonly includes hormone replacement therapy and s ...
. He later rectified himself to include all trans and non-binary people after having been corrected on Twitter.
In an interview with Mara Keisling of TransEquality, Julian Castro decried the treatment of trans people as second-class citizens.
Gun rights
Castro supports tighter gun control and has supported the reinstatement of the assault weapons ban, limiting access to high-capacity magazines, and closing the gun show loophole
Gun show loophole is a political term in the United States referring to the sale of firearms by private sellers, including those done at gun shows, that do not require the seller to conduct a federal background check of the buyer.
This is als ...
.
Affirmative action
Castro has backed affirmative action.
Immigration
Castro supports a path to citizenship for most undocumented residents of the US, has opposed President Trump's "border wall" plan, and has said that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. ICE's stated mission is to protect the United States from the cross-border crime and illegal immigration tha ...
agency needs to be "reconstituted" and that illegal immigration should be treated as a civil offense instead of a criminal one. Additionally, he asserted in the first Democratic primary candidate debates on June 26, 2019 that he would repeal Section 1325 of Title 8 of the U.S. criminal code, which would decriminalize illegal entry into the U.S., rendering unlawful entry a civil offense instead of a criminal one.
Electoral history
Personal life
In 2007, Castro married Erica Lira, an elementary school teacher. They had a daughter in 2009 and a son in December 2014. He is Catholic. He is not a native Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
speaker, but he began learning the language in 2010 while serving as mayor of San Antonio. He also studied Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
and Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
in school.
References
External links
Julian Castro for President
website
"Our America with Julian Castro"
podcast
in the '' New York Times Magazine'' from May 2010
*
, -
, -
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Castro, Julian
1974 births
21st-century American politicians
American politicians of Mexican descent
American Roman Catholics
Jefferson High School (San Antonio, Texas) alumni
Harvard Law School alumni
Hispanic and Latino American mayors in Texas
Hispanic and Latino American members of the Cabinet of the United States
Identical twin politicians
Living people
Mayors of San Antonio
Obama administration cabinet members
San Antonio City Council members
Stanford University alumni
Texas Democrats
American twins
United States Secretaries of Housing and Urban Development
Candidates in the 2020 United States presidential election
Hispanic and Latino American candidates for President of the United States
Members of the Inter-American Dialogue