Does Julián Castro Ring A Bell?

 Julián Castro is the mayor of San Antonio, Texas. He speaks at the Democratic National Convention. Potential 2016 presidential buzz is beginning again.

San Antonio, Texas is the seventh largest city in the United States. It's growing at a faster pace than its predecessor San Jose, California. The leadership of the Democratic mayor has people thinking that he's ringing the bell for the next potential presidential candidate in the 2016 U.S. Elections.

Making the case for embattled President Barack Obama, Castro goes to the floor of the (Save Obama) Democratic National Convention.

Castro is married to his wife Erica and has a baby daughter.

Castro's keynote speech goes after the perennial candidate now Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. He makes light of the infamous Romney Ohio Dominion University speech in which the nominee spoke of how to create a business. He told a sleepy audience of voters that in order to start a business, borrow from your parents.

He made the case against vice presidential nominee (Congressman) Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) infamous austerity bill.

On his official website, the mayor describes himself as a 37-year-old San Antonio native, Mayor Julián Castro is the youngest mayor of a Top 50 American city. First elected on May 9, 2009, Mayor Castro handily won re-election in 2011 with nearly 82 percent of the vote.

Speaking with emotion, Julián Castro delivers his promise to help reelect Barack Obama for president.

 Throughout his tenure, Mayor Castro has focused on attracting well-paying jobs in 21st century industries, positioning San Antonio to be a leader in the New Energy Economy and raising educational attainment across the spectrum. In 2011, the Milken Institute ranked San Antonio the nation’s top-performing local economy.

Mayor Castro created SA2020, a community-wide visioning effort turned nonprofit that has galvanized thousands of San Antonians around a simple, but powerful vision for San Antonio - to create a brainpower community that is the liveliest city in the nation.

Under his leadership, the city in 2010 opened Café College, a one-stop center offering high-quality guidance on college admissions, financial aid and standardized test preparation to any student in the San Antonio area. In its first year, Café College served more than 5,000 area students, spurring an expansion of the facility in 2011.

Mayor Castro also has brought a sense of urgency to revitalizing the city’s urban core, including the underserved East Side of San Antonio, by initiating the “Decade of Downtown” and approving a series of incentives to encourage inner city investment. These efforts have spurred plans for the construction of more than 2,400 housing units in the center city by 2014.

In March 2010, Mayor Castro joined executives from Google and Twitter in being named to the World Economic Forum’s list of Young Global Leaders.  Later that year, Time magazine placed him on its “40 under 40” list of rising stars in American politics. Mayor Castro also serves on the board of directors of the National League of Cities, is a member of the Inter-American Dialogue and is an Aspen-Rodel Fellow. In addition to his community service, Mayor Castro has taught courses at The University of Texas at San Antonio, Trinity University, and St. Mary’s University.

Mayor Castro earned his undergraduate degree from Stanford University with honors and distinction in 1996 and a juris doctorate from Harvard Law School in 2000. In 2001, at the age of 26, Castro became the youngest elected city councilman at that time in San Antonio history.


Mayor Castro’s twin brother,  Joaquin, serves in the Texas House of Representatives.

The Politico outlines five things in Castro's speech. The transcripts that caught the media's attention:
 

1. “First they called it ‘trickle-down.’ Then ‘supply-side.’ Now it’s ‘Romney-Ryan.’ Or is it ‘Ryan-Romney?’”

2. “Now, in Texas, we believe in the rugged individual. Texas may be the one place where people actually still have bootstraps, and we expect folks to pull themselves up by them. But we also recognize there are some things we can’t do alone.”

3. “I don’t think Gov. Romney meant any harm. I think he’s a good guy. He just has no idea how good he’s had it.”

4. “When it comes to expanding access to good health care, Mitt Romney … actually Mitt Romney said, ‘Yes,’ and now he says, ‘No.’”

5. “The American dream is not a sprint, or even a marathon, but a relay. Our families don’t always cross the finish line in the span of one generation. But each generation passes on to the next the fruits of their labor. My grandmother never owned a house. She cleaned other people’s houses so she could afford to rent her own. But she saw her daughter become the first in her family to graduate from college. And my mother fought hard for civil rights so that instead of a mop, I could hold this microphone.”

View the video here