Democratic presidential candidate and former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Julián Castro, argued on Sunday that the Democratic Party needs to take a “risk” in order to beat President Donald Trump in 2020, Politico reports.
Castro appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press to discuss with Chuck Todd, among other issues, the upcoming presidential election.
Todd began the discussion by telling Castro that most Democrats appear to believe that the top priority should be to elect a candidate capable of beating Trump.
Castro responded by arguing that the Democratic Party has only managed to win presidential elections by taking a “risk,” suggesting that a Democrat who is not perceived by the electorate as a status quo politician has the best chance of winning the presidency.
“Well, if you take a look at the modern era of presidential campaigns, when Democrats have won, it’s because they’ve taken a bit of a risk — whether it was Kennedy in 1960 or Carter in 1976 or Barack Obama in 2008. We need to get people off the sidelines in 2020.”
Castro is one such candidate, he suggested, arguing that he would be able to build a base of supporters similar to the one Barack Obama had built in 2008.
The former Housing and Urban Development secretary said that he could “reassemble the Obama coalition and then supercharge that” to win Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — and then snag Florida’s 29 electoral votes, Arizona’s 11 votes and perhaps even Texas’ 38 votes.”
Castro also talked about former Vice President Joe Biden, who is currently the absolute front-runner leading in almost every single Democratic primary poll by a comfortable margin, according to a RealClearPolitics average of polling data.
Acknowledging that he has “some disagreements” with Biden when it comes to policy, Castro said that the former vice president would be a “much better” commander-in-chief than Trump, as would any other Democrat in the race.
Castro’s main disagreements with Biden, he said, pertain to immigration and health care. Unlike Biden, Castro believes that the American health care system needs to be based on the Medicare system while allowing a private option, and Biden believes that the best way forward is to improve the Affordable Care Act better known as Obamacare.
Joe Biden ad: Obamacare is ‘personal’ to me https://t.co/dBZZiWUUMm
— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) August 27, 2019
As The Inquisitr reported, Castro and Biden have sparred on the debate stage. During one of the televised primary debates, Castro ripped into Biden, criticizing the former vice president’s stances on immigration. He pointed out that millions of undocumented immigrants had been deported during the Obama administration, pressing Biden about the issue.
Days later, however, Castro clarified his comments, arguing that there is “no comparison between Obama and Trump.”
