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Texan Julián Castro withdraws from Democratic presidential race

The former San Antonio mayor, the race’s only Latino candidate, never could find traction in a crowded field.

Updated at 12:40 p.m.: Revised throughout with additional information and context.

WASHINGTON – Julián Castro has withdrawn from the Democratic presidential race, ending an underdog White House bid that saw the campaign’s only Latino candidate shape the debate on immigration and other key topics but fail to gain traction in the polls.

The former San Antonio mayor announced Thursday that he had “determined that it simply isn’t our time.”

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“Today it’s with a heavy heart, and profound gratitude, that I will suspend my campaign for president,” Castro said in a video posted to Twitter. “To all who have been inspired by our campaign, especially our young people, keep reaching for your dreams.”

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“¡Ganaremos un día!” he added in Spanish, which translates to “one day we’ll win!”

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Castro, a former U.S. housing secretary, was among the most high-profile Latinos to ever seek the Democratic nomination for president. His exit shows how the most diverse field of presidential candidates in history has seen the group of front-runners narrow to mostly white men and women.

The Texan withdrew a month before the Iowa caucuses, which officially kick off the 2020 election drive that will pit a Democrat against Republican President Donald Trump.

Castro struggled in Democratic polls from the beginning, while also failing to catch fire on the fundraising front. Those troubles had a cascading effect, causing him to not qualify for the last two debates — which, in turn, made it harder for him to win over voters and donors.

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But he won praise from the party’s progressive quarters for being outspoken on several issues, including decriminalizing border crossings, instituting universal pre-kindergarten and raising taxes on wealthy earners to fund anti-poverty efforts and other social programs.

“I’m not done fighting," Castro said in his farewell video. “I’ll keep working towards a nation where everyone counts, a nation where everyone can get a good job, good health care and a decent place to live.”

The race now features no Texans, though Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren lived in the state years ago and motivational speaker Marianne Williamson grew up in Houston. This will be the first White House contest in decades without a Texan from one party or another lasting into the heart of the campaign.

Castro was the second Texan to drop out.

Former El Paso Congressman Beto O’Rourke, unlike Castro, had entered the White House battle with a splash. Coming off a near-miss Senate bid in Texas, he was a well-known fundraising powerhouse, and throngs greeted him on his initial forays into Iowa and New Hampshire.

But O’Rourke eventually found himself mired in the polls and struggling to bring in campaign cash. He ended his bid two months ago.

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Failure to gain recognition

Name ID was never an asset Castro enjoyed.

As mayor of San Antonio, he made his national debut in a sizzling keynote speech at the 2012 Democratic convention — Barack Obama’s launching pad eight years earlier — and was likewise hailed as the future face of the party.

Obama tapped Castro as federal housing secretary. Hillary Clinton had him on her short list for vice president in 2016.

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But the cabinet stint wasn’t enough to make Castro a household name for 2020, especially as more than two dozen Democrats entered the race. Castro even had his twin brother, San Antonio Rep. Joaquin Castro, grow a beard to help better distinguish between the two of them.

Name recognition wasn’t Julián Castro’s only challenge, though.

Since his highest previous run for office was for mayor, he lacked a broad fundraising network, particularly outside of South Texas. He pitched himself as the Democrat who could win Texas for the first time in decades, but O’Rourke’s candidacy blunted that argument.

Castro went all in as a progressive champion, but that put him in an arena crowded with stalwarts like Warren and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

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At campaign events, he projected a low-wattage earnestness that appealed to voters willing to give him a chance, particularly those seeking a liberal alternative. But he rarely attracted the kind of crowds rallied by top-tier candidates, especially in early primary states like Iowa.

On offense during debates

In the debates, Castro was often an aggressor, a tactic that helped him get additional airtime as moderators often focused more on the Democratic contenders leading the polls. But if the intent was to improve his own standing, it never seemed to help.

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At the third debate, he accused former Vice President Joe Biden of misstating details of his own health care plan.

“Are you forgetting what you said two minutes ago? Are you forgetting already what you said just two minutes ago?” Castro demanded.

Castro insisted later that he was only calling out a rival on an inconsistency. But Biden was just shy of his 77th birthday at the time, and it was widely seen as an ageist dig, especially as pundits sorted through the conflicting claims and determined that it was Castro, not Biden, who had misstated.

At the first Democratic debate in Miami, Castro went after O’Rourke, questioning his commitment to protecting migrants because he refused to join a call to decriminalize border crossing without permission.

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Castro argued that the Trump administration had used enforcement of a minor crime to separate children from parents and advance callous immigration policies. He painted his fellow Texan as ignorant in a signature policy area, a level of nastiness that stung O’Rourke and left him flustered.

Castro’s attack damaged his rival and pushed several other candidates to embrace the decriminalization idea. But it didn’t seem to give his own campaign a boost.

Unconventional approach

Nothing did.

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Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, grew a beard to help voters distinguish between him and...
Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, grew a beard to help voters distinguish between him and his twin brother, Julián Castro, who ended his presidential campaign on Thursday. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)(Mario Tama / Getty Images)

Not an effort to point out that San Antonio’s Alamodome could practically seat the population of South Bend, Ind., whose boyish mayor, Pete Buttigieg, has managed to find traction in the White House race despite a lighter résumé than Castro.

Not a bevy of detailed policy proposals, addressing everything from animal abuse to police brutality to affordable housing. Not an unconventional approach to campaigning that took Castro to places not normally visited during a White House race.

He was the first candidate to visit Flint, Mich., to meet with residents still reeling from the city’s water crisis. He toured tunnels beneath Las Vegas to highlight the issue of homelessness. He escorted a group of asylum seekers across a bridge between Mexico and Texas.

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The bleak odds facing Castro were crystallized in mid-October. Third-quarter campaign finance reports showed that the Texan had his best quarter to date, bringing in $3.5 million. But he was still millions of dollars behind his rivals — and spending more than he raised.

The fact that Castro’s exit makes for a less diverse Democratic field further highlights something he complained about in recent months.

While Castro rarely dwelled at length on being the race’s only Latino — in part to avoid being pigeonholed — he didn’t hesitate to note that candidates of color struggled to break through this cycle. His concern intensified after California Sen. Kamala Harris last month ended her campaign.

He even pushed for Democrats to rethink their nomination process, which begins in predominantly white states such as Iowa and New Hampshire.

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“The media’s flawed formula for ‘electability’ has pushed aside women and candidates of color,” he tweeted at the time. “Our party’s diversity is our strength.”

Reaction to his exit

Texas Republicans on Thursday were quick to mock Castro’s departure, saying on Twitter that “some guy you’ve probably never heard of dropped out of the presidential race.”

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Republican Party of Texas chairman James Dickey, citing what he called Castro’s “all out sprint to the left on immigration," said the Democrat “finally realized that those radical positions simply do not align with the will of Texans or Americans.”

But Texas Democratic Party chairman Gilberto Hinojosa said Castro “made Texas proud,” adding that “our country is better off because of Julián Castro’s bold and progressive solutions that challenged the status quo and put people first."

Across the U.S., many notable Democrats hailed Castro’s campaign.

Stacey Abrams, a rising Democratic star in Georgia, said America owes the Texan a “debt of gratitude for lifting issues that too often remain hidden in the shadows of our discourse.” Liberal commentator Joy Reid called his exit a “huge loss.”

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One bit of praise, however, may stand out.

Warren, the Massachusetts senator who’s a leading contender, was among the first to take to Twitter to thank Castro for “being a powerful voice, for proposing bold and progressive plans, and for using your campaign to help people who need it now.”

“You will continue to be a leader in our party and our country for many years to come,” she added.

Castro and Warren bonded on the campaign trail, often praising each other’s ideas. Their personal and policy rapport has fueled speculation that he would again enjoy serious consideration for vice president if she wins the nomination.