Joaquin Castro was born on September 16,1974 and is an American lawyer and Democratic politician who has represented Texas's 20th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives since 2013.
24 Facts About Joaquin Castro
2.
From 2003 to 2013, Castro represented the 125th district in the Texas House of Representatives.
3.
Joaquin Castro was born and raised in San Antonio and attended Thomas Jefferson High School.
4.
Joaquin Castro has said that his interest in public service developed at a young age from watching his parents' involvement in political campaigns and civic causes.
5.
Joaquin Castro's father, Jessie Guzman, is a retired mathematics teacher from the Edgewood Independent School District on San Antonio's west side, and his mother, Marie "Rosie" Castro, is a community activist.
6.
Joaquin Castro graduated with honors from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Arts in political science and communications and earned a Juris Doctor with his twin brother at Harvard Law School.
7.
Joaquin Castro has worked in public education, health care, and the juvenile justice system.
8.
Joaquin Castro is a member of the National College Advising Corps, St Mary's University Mission and Identity Taskforce, St Philip's College President's Advisory Board, and Texas Family Impact Seminar.
9.
Joaquin Castro ran for Texas's 125th House district seat in 2002.
10.
Joaquin Castro was unopposed in the Democratic primary, all but assuring him of winning the general election in this heavily Democratic, Hispanic-majority district.
11.
Davidson predicted that Joaquin Castro could have defeated the announced candidate, Beto O'Rourke, representative of Texas's 16th congressional district based in El Paso, for the Democratic nomination.
12.
Joaquin Castro added that Texas's other senator, Republican John Cornyn, would have taken advantage of a similar opportunity to run.
13.
Joaquin Castro was sworn into office on January 3,2013, becoming a member of the 113th United States Congress.
14.
Joaquin Castro was chosen as the president of the freshman class of Democrats in the 113th Congress.
15.
Joaquin Castro was selected as chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus for the 116th Congress.
16.
Joaquin Castro voted against a House resolution condemning the UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which called Israeli settlement building in the occupied Palestinian territories a "flagrant violation" of international law and a major obstacle to peace.
17.
On January 12,2019, Joaquin Castro introduced and endorsed his twin brother, former HUD Secretary Julian Joaquin Castro, at the launch rally of Julian's 2020 presidential campaign.
18.
In February 2019, Joaquin Castro authored House Joint Resolution 46 to overturn Trump's declaration of a National Emergency Concerning the Southern Border of the United States, under which Trump said he would divert funds from other sources to construct a wall along the US and Mexico border.
19.
In July 2020, following the primary defeat of House Foreign Affairs Committee chairperson Eliot Engel, Joaquin Castro declared his candidacy for chair.
20.
On January 12,2021, Joaquin Castro was named an impeachment manager for Trump's second impeachment.
21.
In 2019, Joaquin Castro grew a beard so that people could distinguish him from his brother.
22.
Joaquin Castro has been a visiting professor of law at St Mary's University and an adjunct professor at Trinity University in San Antonio.
23.
Joaquin Castro sits on several boards of nonprofit organizations and institutions of higher education, including Achieving the Dream, the National College Advising Corps, St Phillip's College President's Advisory Board, St Mary's University Mission and Identity Taskforce, and the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials' Taskforce on Education.
24.
In February 2023, Joaquin Castro had surgery to remove neuroendocrine tumors and described his prognosis as "good" afterward.