Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX) pulled his endorsement of 2020 Democratic candidate Julian Castro on Sunday and announced that he was backing Castro’s 2020 rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, instead.
Gonzalez told CNN’s “State of the Union” host Jake Tapper that he was switching his endorsements in the name of party unity.
“I think at this point in time, we need to narrow the field and unite as Democrats to defeat Trump in November 2020,” the Texas Democrat said. “And that’s why I believe I’m moving my support to Vice President Joe Biden.”
Gonzalez told Tapper that his decision was unrelated to Castro’s jab at Biden’s memory strength during the debate earlier this week, saying that “everyone has their own style on the debate stage.”
Rather, Gonzalez said, it’s about helping to prevent party infighting that could damage the Democrats’ efforts to win the White House.
“If you’re polling in the low single-digits and you’re not raising any resources, and you’re fracturing your party and you’re just getting your supporters to be upset at other candidates, it certainly can’t be a good thing for our party,” he said.
Castro’s campaign responded in a statement saying that Gonzalez is “entitled to endorse whichever candidate he feels represents his values.”
Watch Gonzelez’s interview on CNN’s site.
Anyone who supports someone other than the eventual winner will have to switch their endorsement prior to the general election. Let’s just hope that Rep. Gonzalez has to switch again. (Assuming they don’t want to go 3rd party, or tRump)
I’d feel better if he knew why he was moving his support. The GOP offers enough unfounded belief for both parties.
This is good, the field winnowing really needs to start now…all of the viable candidates have been on stage together so people could compare. If any of the non-viable ones don’t make any polling traction in the next couple weeks they really should jump out, because if they aren’t making waves now then it’s highly unlikely that they will get into the top five in the next three months.
It’s also good that Castro is being punished…the Democrats need to show their policy divisions while remaining united against Trump, and anything like what Castro did distracts from the unity. Biden isn’t my choice, but calling him old or implying he’s senile only helps Trump, because Biden supporters will get pissed off just like Sanders supporters did last time. There have to be no hard feelings after the campaign, so Trump and the Russians can’t drive a wedge that hurts the Democratic candidate. Castro should be the object lesson…he may have hurt his chances at the VP slot by pulling that stunt, that’s really the race he should realize he’s running at this point.
Castro had no shot (neither does Beto really), switching to one of the Top 5 or Top 3 makes sense.
Any candidate who can’t get above 5 or 6% in the aggregate isn’t even a contender for Vice President. Time to cut your losses and protect spot you’ve already won.