Castro campaign, Latino group call out his absence in ‘SNL’ sketch

A top Latino advocacy group is calling out “Saturday Night Live” for not including Julián Castro in a sketch about 2020 Democratic White House hopefuls.

{mosads}A weekend segment on the late-night comedy show featured a mock CNN town hall with several of the presidential candidates. Larry David reprised his role as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), while Kate McKinnon played Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), guest host Woody Harrelson played former Vice President Joe Biden and Maya Rudolph took on the role of Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.).

But Latino Victory, a grassroots organization, called the absence of the former Housing and Urban Development secretary in the sketch “unacceptable” in a Monday tweet.

The erasure of Secretary @JulianCastro, the only Latino running for president, by SNL is completely unacceptable.

Now more than ever, representation matters.

We hope @nbcsnl finds a Latino, there are plenty out there, to play Secretary Castro.https://t.co/Sftl3gqtq0

— Latino Victory (@latinovictoryus) September 30, 2019

The Castro campaign’s national press secretary, Sawyer Hackett, also took aim at “SNL” for the snub.

Interesting that @nbcsnl decided to cut one candidate out of this sketch. Could you not find a Latino actor to play @JulianCastro? pic.twitter.com/eWBgX4CDV7

— Sawyer Hackett (@SawyerHackett) September 29, 2019

Several other candidates in the crowded Democratic field — including Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii) — also were not included in the skit.