Down Around San Antone

Former Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Julián Castro announced his candidacy for President of the United States over the weekend.  Despite his celebrity status within the Democratic Party - and because of his lack of celebrity status outside the Democratic Party - Castro is considered a long shot. 

Castro, vying to become the nation's first Hispanic President, brings his expertise as an administrator over urban affairs and a strong liberal policy on immigration; his grandmother was an immigrant herself, from Mexico.  Alas, none of his executive experience comes from his position before HUD Secretary, that of mayor of San Antonio.  See, San Antonio has a council-manager form of municipal government, in which the mayor is a lot like the president of a European parliamentary republic, with very few executive powers, and the real chief executive is the city manager, who is the equivalent of a prime minister.  Perhaps Castro should have served as the city manager.       

Nevertheless, his background and his experience should still serve him well in the 2020 presidential campaign.  While it is true that former HUD secretaries have never become President - though former presidential candidates have become HUD secretaries, including the current one, the spectacularly insufferable Ben Carson - Castro is an attractive enough candidate to have a shot of making history by being first person to go from running housing policy to running the country as well as making history by being the first President of his ethnicity.

And if he ever makes it to the White House, seeing him and his twin brother Joaquin together in the same room should provide for some delightful confusion. :-D