Julian Castro, Obama’s former housing chief, announced on Wednesday morning that he is exploring a candidacy for President of the United States in 2020.
The former mayor of San Antonio took to Twitter to share a four-minute video and brief tweet with his followers describing his reasoning behind the potential run and the importance of representing Latino communities on the primary stage.
As a kid growing up on the west side of San Antonio, I never thought that I’d one day be making this announcement: https://t.co/2NAIFEsCFh I’m exploring a candidacy for President of the United States in 2020 to renew the promise of this country for all. https://t.co/9jOBdjHcLO
— Julián Castro (@JulianCastro) December 12, 2018
The announcement is one of the first from high-profile Democratic presidential nominee hopefuls—giving Castro a head start on what is already expected to be a highly competitive race.
In preparation, Castro will be forming an exploratory committee, which is standard for all candidates before launching a presidential campaign. The committee will help him determine if the run is worth while and even possible.
Castro will be among the youngest candidates in the Democratic field, and as the grandson of a Mexican immigrant and son of a Latina activist, he is expected to be the most prominent Latino in the race.
He tells Bloomberg, “I’m also very mindful, especially now for the Latino community, that there’s a particular meaning to my candidacy,” Castro said. “We can’t go through the 2020 cycle with nobody on that stage because of what’s happened over the last couple of years.”
But if it seems like the 2016 Presidential election was just last month and talks of the next election cycle is too much too soon, your feelings aren’t wrong. The Washington Post reports that in virtually every other previous presidential election cycle, major-party candidates didn’t announce their campaigns until the late-spring before the election year.
But these aren’t normal times and that’s evident by the slew of senators, house members, business owners and mayors who have already expressed interest in running —some even announcing their candidacy. High-profile Senators Kirsten Gillibrand, Cory Booker, Sherrod Brown and Bernie Sanders have not ruled out the possibility. Beto O’Rourke is also expected to make an announcement soon and house member John Delaney said he will be running in 2020.
Other candidates will announce their decisions in the early part of January 2019.