Julian Castro & Carlos Curbelo

Julián Castro's Biography

Julián Castro has distinguished himself as a strong leader and successful public servant for nearly two decades. A former Democratic candidate for President, Castro served as the 16th Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Barack Obama from 2014 to 2017, and as mayor of San Antonio from 2009 to 2014. At HUD, Castro managed 8,000 employees and a budget of more than $46 billion, and he led progress at the Department that earned it recognition as one of the most improved federal agencies. Castro also co-chaired the United States delegation to the United Nations Habitat III conference, spearheaded efforts to reduce homelessness, and created Connect Home, a public-private partnership to deliver broadband to public housing residents.

Previously, as mayor of America’s seventh largest city, Castro brought a strong focus to expanding educational achievement and making San Antonio a leader in the 21st century global economy. Under Castro’s leadership, San Antonio implemented Pre-K4SA, a high quality early childhood learning initiative that has earned praise as one of America’s strongest public pre-kindergarten programs. During his tenure, San Antonio ranked first on the Milken Institute’s Best Performing Cities List, received an A+ grade for doing business by Forbes, and was the only Top 10 city at the time to achieve a Triple A bond rating with each of the three major ratings agencies.

A native Texan, Castro began his public service career in 2001, becoming, at the age of 26, San Antonio’s youngest city councilman in history at the time. Castro made history again in 2012, when he delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention, the first Latino to do so.

Following his service in the Obama administration, Castro served as the Dean’s Distinguished Fellow and Fellow of the Davila Chair in International Trade Policy at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. Castro’s memoir, An Unlikely Journey: Waking Up From My American Dream was published by Little Brown in 2018.

Today, Castro serves on the board of directors of the LBJ Foundation and is a political analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. Castro serves as CEO of the Latino Community Foundation, the nation’s largest Latino-serving foundation. 

Castro received a B.A. from Stanford University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He and his wife, Erica, have a daughter, Carina, and a son, Cristián. Castro’s twin brother, Joaquin, represents the 20th Congressional District of Texas.

Carlos Curbelo's Biography

Not yet 40 years of age, Carlos Curbelo has had quite a number of interesting life experiences. He started a media and public relations firm fresh out of college and ran it successfully for over ten years. At the age of 29 he became senior staff for a U.S. Senator and a key advisor on Latin-American policy. Just a year later he was elected to the Miami-Dade County School Board and was part of a historic leadership team that took America’s fourth largest school district from bankruptcy to excellence. During his tenure on the board, Miami-Dade County Public Schools expanded choice, cut administrative costs, and gave teachers raises resulting in the District receiving the prestigious Broad Prize for Education.

In 2014, Carlos was elected to represent his community in the U.S. House of Representatives. He served on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, the Education and Workforce Committee, the Small Business Committee, and the powerful Committee on Ways and Means where he co-authored the Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017 - comprehensive tax reform legislation that delivered historic tax relief, drove investment to challenged communities, and made American businesses more competitive. While in Congress Curbelo also led on climate policy, immigration reform, and gun safety. He co-founded and co-chaired the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus, served in a leadership role in the Problem Solvers Caucus, and led the Brazil Caucus to strengthen the bilateral relationship with Latin-America's leading economy. In 2017, Curbelo was honored by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation with the New Frontier Award for his work promoting bipartisan cooperation on environmental policy. In 2018 he filed the landmark Market Choice Act, ambitious legislation that would invest nearly a trillion dollars in American infrastructure while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by pricing carbon. Also in 2018, he led a discharge petition initiative that forced the U.S. House to debate and consider comprehensive immigration reform legislation - including a path to citizenship for Dreamers - for the first time in a decade. 

Curbelo has consistently advocated for decency, sobriety, and civility in politics, and more broadly, in American society. Just weeks before leaving Congress he made news for holding a press conference with a young man who threatened his life where he publicly forgave him and announced he would not press charges. He was ranked the fourth most bipartisan Member of the House where he represented South Florida until returning to the private sector in 2019.