Talk about pressure. Alternatively hyped as the Hispanic Barack Obama and the Democratic Marco Rubio, San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro is hoping he can just deliver a good speech.
The keynote address at the Democratic National Convention will give the 37-year-old rising political star a chance to introduce himself to a national audience. Castro’s speech is expected to be a full-throated defense of President Obama’s record intertwined with his family’s story of political activism—from his mother’s organizing on behalf of Mexican Americans during the 1970s to his twin-brother Joaquin’s election to the Texas state legislature.
Castro is the first Hispanic to deliver the keynote, and the Obama campaign is no doubt hoping he can energize a voting bloc considered key to victory in the critical swing states of Nevada, Colorado, and Florida.
Of course, if all goes well in primetime in Charlotte, N.C., Castro just might put himself in position to pursue even loftier political heights. Kind of like that guy Obama did four years after he gave the keynote at his party’s national convention.
