Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren’s flagging campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination got a boost this morning with an endorsement by Julian Castro, who recently dropped out of the race for the nomination.
Castro, who served as Secretary of Housing in the Obama administration, never rose higher than single digits in the polls but succeeded in broadening the discussion of immigration policy by proposing to decriminalize unauthorized entry into the US. During one of the Democratic debates Castro noted border crossings, such a Latin American migrants crossing the southern border, had seldom been criminally prosecuted prior to the Trump Administration.
Castro was unrestrained in his praise for Warren as the candidate likeliest to push progressive policies furthest. “There’s one candidate I see who is unafraid to fight like hell to make sure that America’s promise will be there for everyone,” he said in a video released on Twitter.
It could probably go without saying that nobody knows how significant the Castro endorsement will be for Warren, who peaked in the polls in October and is now third behind former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, the progressive icon who has raked in immense amounts of campaign cash in small-dollar donations. While most voters see broad agreement between Warren and Sanders on issues such as Medicare for All and much higher taxes on the ultra-rich, “Bernie bros,” as Sanders supporters are sometimes called, are legendary for their intolerance of other candidates.
