Castro to visit Charles City on Sunday

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

Presidential candidate Julian Castro will make a campaign stop in Charles City on Sunday.

Castro, the former U.S. Housing and Urban Development secretary, will meet and greet voters at Saint Charles Brewing Co. at 100 S. Main St. from 4:30-5:30 p.m.Sunday, Jan. 5, according to an announcement on Castro’s Facebook page.

Doors are scheduled to open at 4 p.m., and the event is free and open to the public.

Castro is also scheduled for an event in Decorah earlier Sunday and an event in Newton on Monday.

Castro, age 45, is one of several Democratic Party candidates seeking the party’s nomination to face President Donald Trump in the general election next November.

Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses are scheduled to take place Feb. 3. In a campaign ad which aired throughout the state in December, Castro repeated earlier assertions that he believed Iowa should not be first because it lacks diversity.

“It’s time for a state other than Iowa to go first so that our nominating process actually reflects the diversity of our country or of our party,” Castro said in the ad.

Since the Iowa Caucus began in 1972, many have argued that the state, which is 90% white, does not demographically represent the country.

On the campaign trail in November, Castro asserted that Iowa and New Hampshire should not be the first states to hold presidential primaries and caucuses because they are “not reflective” of the diversity in the United States.

Castro, from Texas, served as the 16th HUD secretary from 2014-17. He served as mayor of his home town of San Antonio from 2009-2014. He was often mentioned as a possible running mate for Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign, but Clinton ultimately selected U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, from Virginia.

Castro has been polling at 1% or lower in most national and regional polls. He has not yet met the requirements for the next debate, which will take place on Jan. 14 in Iowa.

Former Vice President Joe Biden; Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.); and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg are so far the only candidates to have met the Democratic National Committee threshold for polling and donations to earn a spot on stage for that debate, which will be held at Drake University in Des Moines.

In the latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll, Biden was in the lead, with 24 percent support from Democratic voters and Democratic-leaning independents. The former vice president was closely followed by Sanders, who had 22 percent support. The survey showed Warren finishing third, with 17 percent of Democratic voters and Democratic-leaning independents backing her bid.

Buttigieg has risen to the lead in Iowa, according to a CNN/Des Moines Register poll from November that showed him topping the field with 25 percent support in the state. He was followed by Warren, Biden and Sanders.