Texas Democratic Presidential Candidate Julian Castro Seeks To Continue Momentum After Debate Performance
FRISCO, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - On Monday, more than 350 Democrats welcomed presidential candidate Julian Castro to Frisco.
Since his breakout performance during last Wednesday night's Democratic presidential debate, Castro said he's had his strongest days of fundraising. "Just yesterday, we reached 100,000 unique donations and we're getting a lot of contributions in every single day."
Castro spoke at Collin College in Frisco during a town hall sponsored by the Frisco Democratic Club, Collin County and Dallas County Democratic parties.
The President of the Frisco Democrats, Ira Bershad, told CBS 11, he believes the former San Antonio Mayor and HUD Secretary can win. "Yeah absolutely. I think he can be a contender and let's face it, the importance of having a Texan based candidate can be all the difference in this race."
The question now for Castro is how he can keep the momentum going from Wednesday night's debate.
One poll from Scott Rasmussen.com-HarrisX has him rising to two percent, while another poll by Morning Consult has him remaining at one percent.
In response, Castro said, "I think there are going to be other polls that have me much higher than that. We're doing what we can to make sure I stay in the media spotlight and that we're capitalizing on fundraising."
California Senator Kamala Harris received a big bump in the Morning Consult poll after Thursday night's debate in which she criticized former Vice President Biden's remarks about segregationist
Senators and his position on busing decades ago.
Since then, some Democrats have defended Biden.
During a brief one-on-one interview following the townhall, I asked Castro if he thought the criticism of Biden is fair or unfair.
Castro said, "Every candidate is going to have to defend their record. So I believe that it's fair for Senator Harris or anybody else to bring up where Joe Biden stood on busing. That's a fair conversation."
At the town hall, Castro said his criticism of O'Rourke wasn't personal, but about policy.
Castro said it should be a civil matter, not a crime.
He also wants to make DACA recipients, those who were brought to the U.S. by their parents when they were young, citizens and give a path to citizenship for those who came here illegally, unless they are criminals.
Castro called President Trump's record on illegal immigration a disaster, and told me his plan to send more aid to three Central American countries would stem the flow of migrants there from coming to the U.S. illegally. "We would have less people coming to our southern border because people would be able to find opportunity an safety in Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala. If we don't address this, people will just keep coming."
During the town hall, he told the crowd that if elected President, he would repeal President Trump's tax cuts and replace it with a plan that works for the middle class, and raise tax rates for the wealthy and on corporations.
Castro campaigned in Fort Worth Monday evening.
From North Texas, Castro will head to Nevada and Iowa.
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