Julian Castro, mayor of San Antonio, left, waves while on stage with his brother, Representative Joaquin Castro, a Democrat from Texas, at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., Sept. 4, 2012.
Prior to Julian’s potent introductory address at the 2012 Democratic National Convention (or were we just enamored by his adorable daughter Carina), the Castro twins were hardly on the national radar, though they were both making splashes in their home state of Texas as rising political stars. For the 38-year-old twins, it seemed like a battle of one-upmanship after they both earned bachelor’s degrees from Stanford and law degrees from Harvard. In 2001, Julian became the youngest city councilman in San Antonio, Tex., the twins’ hometown. The next year, Joaquin won a seat in the Texas House of Representatives. Julian was elected to mayor of San Antonio in 2009 as the city’s youngest-ever mayor and tapped in 2012 as the keynote speaker at the DNC (introduced, of course, by Joaquin). Just two months later, Joaquin was elected to the national House of Representatives for Texas’ 20th district, which includes half of the city of San Antonio. To say that the twins are political powerhouses in charge of the affairs for the nation’s seventh-largest city would be something of an understatement.