Julián Castro, the former congressman and secretary of Housing and Urban Development who doxxed contributors to President Trump’s reelection campaign for president, has dropped his bid for the White House.
No relation to the deceased communist dictator of Cuba, Castro announced his departure from the crowded field of leftists on Twitter.
His effort, as CNN reported, “failed to gain traction.”
That lapse into campaign lingo means he had as much chance of winning the Democrat nomination as Trump.
Sad Goodbye
The three-minute, 48-second video tweet opens in Spanish — Me llamo es Julián Castro (My name is Julian Castro) — then segues into a montage of scenes, backed by dramatic music, from the quixotic presidential bid.
“I’m going to tell the truth,” he says after the review of The Big Fail. “It’s time for the Democratic party to change the way we do our presidential nominating process.”
That’s because marginal radicals such as Castro can’t win, but in any event, he assures viewers that he’s “so proud of the campaign we’ve run together.”
We shaped the conversation on so many important issues in this race, stood up for the most vulnerable people, and given a voice to those who are often forgotten.
But with only a month until the Iowa caucuses, and given the circumstances of this campaign season, I’ve determined that it simply isn’t our time.
After thanking supporters, Castro warned, “I’m not done fighting,” and he promised to “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. Where each of our children can walk across the graduation stage.”
After that boilerplate sloganeering comes the frightening promise to send the country into social and cultural chaos by turning the streets over to criminals and opening the borders to an unceasing flood of illegal aliens.
Castro wants America to be a place “where kids like Trayvon” Martin, the thug who tried to murder George Zimmerman in 2012, “can walk across their neighborhood in peace.”
“And where Oscar and Valeria can walk to refuge.”
The video warning of more to come ends as it began, in Spanish:
“Ganaremos un día!” the hard leftist says, sounding like Fidel Castro must have sounded in exhorting his communist band in Cuba’s Sierra Maestra in 1958. “One day we’ll win!”
Castro’s radical mother inspired him to enter politics. She was an activist with Partido Nacional de La Raza Unida, which translates to National United Race Party.
Two of Casto’s campaign planks were ending the tax on tampons and protecting the right of trans women — meaning men who think they are women — to have an abortion.
The Rest of the Field
Castro’s departure is as unremarkable as his entrance. His support among voters is at 1.2 percent in the Real Clear Politics Average of Democrat primary polls.
He polled zero percent in two of the 10 polls taken since December 8, and reached four percent in one poll. In Iowa, which he mentioned in his video, he was at 0.5 percent.
It’s safe to say Joe Biden wasn’t sweating a challenge from the Mexican-American revanchist.
After a brief surge when Elizabeth Warren nearly tied him, Biden has held a commanding lead against his rivals.
He has not lost a single one of the 32 polls since Warren last came out on top in an Economist/YouGov poll of November 10-11.
Since then, the former vice president has led his opponents by as many as 16 points — in two Hill/Harris X polls — and topped them by 10 or more points in 15 polls.
As of December 31, Biden held a commanding 9.8-point lead.
Soviet apologist Bernie Sanders trails Biden’s 28.3 with 19.1, while Warren is in third at 15.1
Behind Warren is Pete Buttigieg, the homosexual mayor of South Bend, Indiana, at 8.3.
Anti-gun candidate Michael Bloomberg, a former Republican, polls fourth at 4.8 percent.
The rest — Amy Klobuchar, Andrew Yang, Cory Booker, et al. — are where they have been: in the basement, waiting for an opportune time to drop the pretense they have a chance to beat Biden, Sanders, or Warren.
Before Castro wisely decided to quit, Kamala Harris came to her senses. When she bailed early last month, she was polling at 3.4 percent.
Klobuchar and Yang are at 3.5, while Booker sits at 2.5.
Tulsi Gabbard is at 1.8, and billionaire environut Tom Steyer at 1.5.
Photo: AP Images
