Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro warned in a new interview that Democrats could lose support among Latino voters even if the party’s presumptive presidential nominee, Joe Biden, wins in the November election.
“I think that we could win the battle and lose the war,” Castro, who ended his own Democratic presidential bid in January, told “Axios on HBO” in an interview published Tuesday. “We could win in November, but you could see a potential slide of Latino support for Democrats.”
Latinos will be the largest nonwhite voting bloc in this year’s election, but Castro said too often the Latino community is “invisible” or “an afterthought.”
“I don’t think it’s only Democratic Party,” he added. “I think in every way, in American society, in the media, in Hollywood, in many professions, there’s this image of the Latino community as though everybody got here five minutes ago, and the community has also been demonized, especially in the era of Donald Trump, as other, as foreign.”
Castro’s comments come amid the Democratic National Convention. Castro, who was the only Latino candidate of the 2020 presidential election cycle, was not asked to be one of the featured, solo speakers.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), a prominent Latina lawmaker, is speaking Tuesday night but will only have one minute allocated for her remarks. A petition from 225 delegates is asking the convention to give her “enough time to demonstrate respect for her and the constituents the presents.” The petition notes that she is “one of only three Latinx speakers scheduled” for the convention.
The petition has received 6,673 signatures as of Tuesday morning.