While he didn’t formally announce a Senate run Wednesday night, U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro covered topics ranging from universal health care to the crisis in Syria in a format that sounded similar to a campaign stump speech.

The Democrat came to his hometown one day after the Senate race’s two candidates, Sen. Ted Cruz and U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, made their own treks to the Alamo City. His twin brother Julián, former San Antonio mayor and former housing secretary under the Obama administration, introduced him on stage at The Cove restaurant to a crowd of about 300.

Castro, 42, teased his yet-to-be-announced decision, but said at least twice that he planned to discuss it with his family and supporters before deciding within the next few weeks. He added that 2018 is “just one step,” and that 2020, the next presidential election, is even more important.

“It’s clear there is a hunger for change,” Castro said. He said that people woke up “with a political hangover” after last year’s general election, and that from his travels across the state to small towns and big cities, he’s heard the same thing — that “Ted Cruz works for Ted Cruz.”

While Cruz didn’t mention Castro in his remarks Tuesday, his campaign manager, Jeff Roe, has been taking swipes at him on Twitter, saying in one post that someone should tell Castro “he’s no longer a rising star so stop acting like one.”

Castro also acknowledged a new Texas Lyceum poll that showed him four points ahead of Cruz at this moment in the Senate race, should he run. The statewide poll showed Cruz and O’Rourke tied at 30 percent each. However, 37 percent of registered Texas voters say they haven’t thought about the race yet, according to the group.

Castro called for automatic voter registration in Texas, an end to gerrymandering of congressional districts and an abolishment of “dark money” in American politics. He criticized President Donald Trump’s preparedness for international crises, adding that “the rookie president” should rely on congressional authorization before taking military action.

“We have to always prefer diplomacy to military force,” he said, admitting that a majority of Americans thought Trump was justified in his bombing of a Syrian airbase after reports of gas attacks in the country.

When asked about O’Rourke, who announced his run a few weeks ago, Castro said both were aware of the other’s interest.

Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston, said at the moment Castro is the better candidate on paper, that being Latino “helps in a major way in a state like Texas,” but O’Rourke “has a genuine personal touch” that can resonate with voters and is hard to discount in a race that will involve a small number of them.

Castro said he knows O’Rourke is working hard, but he still plans to stick to his timeline and not make any announcements before the end of April.

frahman@express-news.net