Julian Castro Bio
Julián Castro (born September 16, 1974) is an American lawyer and politician from San Antonio, Texas. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 16th United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Barack Obama from 2014 to 2017, becoming the youngest member of the Obama cabinet. He previously served as mayor of San Antonio from 2009 to 2014 and ran for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in 2020.
Castro graduated from Stanford University and Harvard Law School before entering public service in San Antonio. He is the identical twin brother of U.S. Representative Joaquín Castro. After his 2020 presidential campaign, he joined NBC News and MSNBC as a political commentator and has continued to work on housing, education, immigration, and criminal-justice issues.
Early Life and Background
Julián Castro was born in San Antonio, Texas, the son of Maria “Rosie” Castro and Jessie Guzman. His mother is a Chicana political activist who helped establish the Chicano political party La Raza Unida and ran for the San Antonio City Council in 1971. His father is a retired mathematics teacher and political activist. Rosie and Jessie never married and separated when the twins were eight years old. Castro has described his mother as the biggest reason he and his brother entered public service, recalling that she often took them to rallies and organizational meetings as children.
Castro is of Mexican descent, with Texan roots that trace back to 1920, when his grandmother Victoria Castro arrived in Texas as a six-year-old orphan from northern Mexico. He is the identical twin brother of Joaquín Castro, with Julián born one minute before Joaquín. Castro attended Thomas Jefferson High School in San Antonio, where he played football, basketball, and tennis, skipped his sophomore year, and graduated in 1992, ranking ninth in his class.
Path to US Politics
Castro graduated from Stanford University in 1996 with a bachelor’s degree in political science and communications. He has said he began thinking about entering politics at Stanford, where he and his twin brother won student senate seats, tying for the highest number of votes. Between his sophomore and junior years, Castro worked as an intern at the White House during the presidency of Bill Clinton.
He then entered Harvard Law School and graduated with a Juris Doctor in 2000. His brother Joaquín graduated alongside him from both Stanford and Harvard. After law school, the two brothers worked for the law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld before starting their own firm in 2005. In 2018, Castro was named a Dean’s Distinguished Fellow and Fellow of the Dávila Chair in International Trade Policy at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs.
Julian Castro Career
Early Career (2001-2005)
In 2001, Castro was elected to the San Antonio City Council, winning 61 percent of the vote against five challengers. At age 26, he was the youngest city councilman in San Antonio history, surpassing Henry Cisneros, who had won his council seat in 1975 at age 27. Castro represented District 7, a precinct on the city’s west side with 115,000 residents that was 70 percent Hispanic.
As a councilman from 2001 to 2005, he opposed a PGA-approved golf course and large-scale real estate development on the city’s outer rim. He also ran for mayor of San Antonio in 2005, finishing as the front runner in a field that included retired judge Phil Hardberger, but lost the runoff by approximately 4,000 votes. Following that defeat, Castro established his own law practice.
Mayoral Breakthrough (2009-2014)
Castro ran for mayor of San Antonio again in 2009 and won on May 9, 2009, with 56.23 percent of the vote, becoming the fifth Latino mayor in the city’s history and the youngest mayor of a top-50 American city. He easily won re-election in 2011 with 82.9 percent of the vote and in 2013 with 67 percent.
During his tenure, Castro created SA2020, a community-wide visioning effort that became a nonprofit organization. He also established Cafe College in 2010 to offer college guidance to San Antonio-area students, and in 2012 he led a voter referendum to expand pre-kindergarten education, persuading prominent local businessmen Charles Butt and Joe Robles to back a $30 million sales tax to fund the program. In 2010, Time magazine placed him on its “40 under 40” list of rising stars in American politics, and in 2012 he became the first Hispanic to deliver the keynote address at a Democratic National Convention.
Obama Administration Era (2014-2017)
On May 22, 2014, the White House announced Castro as President Barack Obama’s nominee to be Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. The Senate confirmed him on July 9, 2014, by a vote of 71-26, and he took office on July 28, 2014. He resigned as mayor effective July 22, 2014, and the San Antonio City Council elected councilmember Ivy Taylor to replace him.
As Secretary, Castro’s final memo outlined accomplishments that included stabilizing the housing market, rebuilding communities struck by natural disasters through a $1 billion National Disaster Resilience Competition, expanding lead safety protections in federally assisted housing, and implementing the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule. Following his time in office, Castro was discussed as a potential vice-presidential nominee for the Democratic Party in 2016.
Notable Events and Milestones
Castro gained national attention in 2012 as the first Hispanic to deliver the keynote address at a Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. In 2020, he became the first Texan in that year’s Democratic presidential race and would have been the third-youngest president if elected. He formally announced his candidacy on January 12, 2019, at a rally in San Antonio, and his performance in the first Democratic debate was widely praised as a breakout moment. After suspending his campaign on January 2, 2020, he endorsed Elizabeth Warren and later endorsed Joe Biden in June 2020.
Julian Castro Career Wins
Julián Castro’s political record includes three mayoral election victories in San Antonio, a U.S. Senate confirmation as Cabinet secretary, and historic firsts in Democratic Party history. His wins reflect steady electoral growth in his hometown and a steady rise in national prominence.
Mayoral Highlights
Castro first won the mayoralty of San Antonio on May 9, 2009, capturing 56.23 percent of the vote. He then secured landslide re-elections in 2011, with 82.9 percent, and in 2013, with 67 percent, finishing his mayoral tenure as one of the most popular big-city leaders in Texas.
Other Wins & Achievements
Beyond electoral wins, Castro won appointment as the 16th U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in 2014, the youngest member of President Obama’s cabinet. He also became the first Hispanic to deliver the keynote address at a Democratic National Convention in 2012, and he was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2010. In 2018, he published his memoir, An Unlikely Journey, and in 2020 he joined the board of directors of the Center for American Progress.
Julian Castro Family
Family Background and Political Lineage
Julián Castro is the son of Maria “Rosie” Castro, a Chicana political activist who helped establish La Raza Unida Party, and Jessie Guzman, a retired mathematics teacher and political activist. Rosie and Jessie never married and separated when the twins were eight. Castro is of Mexican descent, and his grandmother Victoria Castro came to Texas in 1920 as a six-year-old orphan from northern Mexico. His identical twin brother, Joaquín Castro, is a U.S. Representative from Texas.
Personal Life
In 2007, Castro married Erica Lira, an elementary school teacher. They divorced in 2022. The couple has a daughter born in 2009 and a son born in December 2014. Castro is Catholic and is not a native Spanish speaker; he began learning the language in 2010 while serving as mayor of San Antonio. He also studied Latin and Japanese in school.