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WASHINGTON — Not everything is bigger in Texas. But San Antonio is certainly a whole lot bigger than South Bend, Indiana.
On a late night comedy show Wednesday, Julián Castro — former mayor of the Alamo City and a housing secretary in the Obama cabinet— let loose his frustration at being overshadowed by Pete Buttigieg, mayor of a city with fewer residents than nearly three dozen cities in Texas.
“I was mayor of a city that’s 14 times larger than South Bend. In fact, we could almost fit South Bend in our Alamodome in San Antonio,” Castro told The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah.
Noah had prodded him to respond to Buttigieg’s surge in the Democratic presidential race, noting their ongoing squabble over their relative standing among African-American voters, and Buttigieg’s invitation to show him around his hometown to disprove the Texan’s attacks.
“I have a lot of respect for Mayor Buttigieg but I do think that our experience level is different. I don’t need to go see South Bend. I saw a hundred different cities when I was HUD secretary,” Castro said.
The caustic reply got no laughs. But then, the Texan’s struggle in the 2020 field is no laughing matter.
He’s sure to be shut out of the next debate, Nov. 20 in Atlanta. He would somehow need hit 3% in four approved nationwide polls by next Wednesday to score an invite. And without that exposure, he’ll also have a hard time qualifying for the sixth debate, Dec. 19 in Los Angeles.
Last month he warned donors that he would have to drop out if he couldn’t raise a relatively modest $800,000 in the last 10 days of October.
Noah asked if he’s really able to stay in the race, noting that last Friday, fellow Texan Beto O’Rourke abruptly quit, days after appearing on his show and saying he wouldn’t.
“He said to my face that he was not going to drop out of the race. Then he dropped out four days later,” Noah complained.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Castro assured him. “We just hit our fund-raising goal.… We’re working hard on the race.
“Either that or I’m going to say that you were the curse,” he quipped.
Noah prodded Castro to respond to Buttigieg’s boast that the race is down to him and Sen. Elizabeth Warren – writing off Castro and candidates with much stronger poll numbers and fund-raising, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders.
Was that strange to hear, he asked, “especially considering that you were a mayor of a much bigger town?”
And, Noah asked, what about the critique Castro has leveled at Buttigieg, that he has a poor image among African-American voters the attack that prompted the invitation to South Bend so he could be proven wrong.
“I actually have a good track record with black voters,” Castro said, again jabbing at his rival. “It’s risky to have a candidate at the top of the ticket that cannot speak to, in a convincing way, those different communities.”
While Castro showed disdain for Buttigieg, he wasn’t shy about expressing admiration for Warren, as he has before, fueling speculation that he’s angling to be her running-mate or, at the least, in her cabinet if she wins.
“She said she’s loved your policies. You’ve said you’ve loved her policies. What do you think it is about the two of you that has stirred up this this romance in and around policy?” Noah said.
“The policy romance — that’s what it is,” Castro said.
“She’s fantastic. She’s done a very impressive job on the campaign trail” rising to the top tier. And, he said, “She’s doing a fantastic job of fusing her biography. People need to know where you are and why you’re running….She’s done a great job at storytelling with a purpose.”