The Winner of Last Night’s Iowa Caucus was Julián Castro

*Really? You think so? I understand the premise, but doesn’t imagining a Castro VP slot reduce him to a piece on a political chess board? The narrative becomes an “if-then” proposition and we go back to the same-old Latino narrative problem – it’s not that he’s capable and deserving, it’s that he can solidify votes that may be threatened. Some will say “we’ll take that premise.” And truth be told, that calculus looks like it would work. In big league politics the paths are all calculations in some way. What do you think? VL

By Stephen A. Nuño, NBC News

A Latino emerged the victor out of last night’s Iowa Caucus, but it isn’t the Latino you are thinking about. Ted Cruz is the first candidate of Cuban descent to win in Iowa, and Marco Rubio certainly outplayed his expectations; both will go on while the novelty of a billionaire like Donald Trump “who tells it like it is” will continue to fade. But the real winner last night was Julián Castro.

As the Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the only viable Latino Democrat to emerge within the Democrat’s field, the dual victories of candidates of Hispanic descent in the Republican Party makes Julian Castro a renewed commodity of great importance to the Democrats.

And as Marco Rubio’s stock rises, and it will after tonight, Hillary Clinton will be faced with the dilemma of reaching out to Latinos in the face of GOP ticket that will be able to reach out to them in Spanish. While the Latino vote alone cannot necessarily bring Hillary Clinton a victory, it is imperative that her ticket do two things in order to win in September.

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