The brothers have burned up the Democratic Party’s national speaking circuit this year. The Castros' national road show

In Washington, much of the Democratic Party is experiencing a “Back to the Future” moment, with a pair of white politicians pushing 70 — Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden — dominating the early politics of 2016.

Out in the states, it’s another story. There, the rank and file of the Democratic coalition has spent 2013 getting to know a different, fresher pair of faces for the party: Joaquin and Julian Castro.


The two brothers, who burst upon the national stage in 2012 after Julian — the mayor of San Antonio — keynoted the Democratic National Convention, have burned up the Democratic Party’s national speaking circuit this year. By the end of October, the 38-year-old twins will have appeared at major functions in at least 11 states outside their native Texas, and also the sets of prominent national TV programs like NBC’s “Meet the Press” and ABC’s “This Week.”

( PHOTOS: 10 key facts about Julian Castro)

In the process, they have filled a void within their party, which despite fashioning itself as the home for a younger and more diverse America, has elevated few politicians during the Age of Obama who actually look like that emerging electorate.

The Castro brothers’ speeches are marquee engagements, often the most desirable invitations that any given state party has to hand out. Joaquin Castro, the first-term congressman, has already addressed the Indiana Democrats’ Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, the New Jersey Democrats’ state convention and South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn’s annual fish fry. He’s scheduled this fall to visit the New Mexico and Maryland state parties and headline a Democratic dinner in California’s upscale Orange County.

Julian, meanwhile, has spoken to Jefferson-Jackson dinners in the nation’s top two swing states, Ohio and Florida, as well as Arizona, the traditional bastion of Sun Belt conservatism where Democrats are increasingly determined to compete. In September, he’ll travel to Iowa to appear at Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin’s steak fry, a big-ticket event in the leadoff presidential caucus state; Joaquin Castro told POLITICO he’ll join his brother there but doesn’t plan to speak.

( PHOTOS: Julian and Joaquin Castro)

The two have also committed to campaigning in Virginia this fall for gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe, Democratic sources said. The schedule hasn’t been set, but the Castros are planning to do get-out-the-vote events for McAuliffe in the hotly contested race, in which the Democrat’s prospects for victory hinge in no small part on minority turnout.

For a pair of junior Democrats who were relatively unknown at this time last year, it is an astonishingly ambitious itinerary — and a vivid illustration of how quickly a politician can advance in the present day when his biography and message line up with the political moment.

In separate interviews, Joaquin and Julian Castro both embraced the role into which they’ve been cast, not necessarily as ideological leaders or candidates for high office themselves, but as avatars of what Democrats hope their party and country are becoming.

( Also on POLITICO: Julian Castro's 2012 DNC speech transcript)

“The city I come from and the state I come from really represent the face of America in the coming decade,” said Joaquin Castro, who invokes his family’s story and the need for “an infrastructure of opportunity” in America as he tours the country.

Julian Castro put it even more plainly, suggesting that voters “see the future, oftentimes, in folks who are new to them and relatively young.”

“What I hope they see is that I’ve lived a story that is like a lot of their families have, and that embodies the American dream,” the mayor said. “I hope they expect to hear how we can continue to be a country that delivers American dream stories, like I’ve lived and Joaquin has lived.”

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In some respects, the Castros’ rapid arrival on the political scene is a testament to their individual talents, and their family’s immigrant story of upward mobility through hard work and elite education. They are both gifted orators, and well-prepared from their background in conservative Texas to make the case for Democratic values in every time zone.

But as the brothers freely acknowledge, their position in the Democratic Party also reflects powerful underlying changes in the nature of American politics — changes that the Castros reflect almost perfectly:

At a moment when both parties are fixated on the country’s generational and demographic changes, they are the nation’s most prominent Hispanic politicians under 40. As Democrats dream of turning Texas into a swing state, they are two of the only Texas Democrats well-enough known to run statewide. Both Castros — and Julian, the San Antonio mayor, especially — can relate to a country and a Democratic Party that have grown increasingly urban. (“As a big-city mayor, there’s something I offer that a lot of folks can’t,” Julian Castro said.)

Perhaps most importantly, after President Barack Obama’s ascent to the White House, an ambitious official no longer needs to spend decades paying his dues in order to be treated as a serious voice on politics and policy.

“Having Joaquin Castro and Julian Castro as marquee spokespeople for [the] next generation and messengers, not just to the Latino community but to the youth in this country, sends a strong message about what the Democratic Party stands for,” said Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz. “We’re making Texas a priority and I expect to make significant gains.”

Democratic strategist Ellen Qualls, the former director of surrogate communications for Obama’s reelection campaign, said the Castros were deployed frequently in 2012 and remain in demand as “living embodiments of the American Dream.”

“They speak powerfully to new and old immigrant communities and to a new generation of voters, and hail from a state we’d like to see become a new battleground,” Qualls said. “And on top of that, they’re just really nice, smart guys.”

New Mexico Democratic Party Chairman Sam Bregman, who will host Joaquin Castro in early September, described him and his brother in Obama-like terms: “People are inspired by them. They bring hope to people — quite frankly, a lot of people have been hurting over the past four years.

The national Democratic swoon for the Castro family began only a year ago, though the party’s strategist class has been salivating for years over the idea of identical twin politicians with their shared abilities and biography. For the moment, it seems as if no corner of the political world is off-limits to them.

What’s less clear is where the two brothers go from here.

Both assiduously downplay speculation that they are eyeing any office other than the ones they hold. Joaquin, after all, is in his first term in the House (“I’ll be in Congress a while at least,” he said), and Julian was just reelected to a third term as mayor. Given their youth, there’s no chance that either will be viewed as old news anytime soon.

But Republicans, and even some skeptical Democrats, wonder when either of them will have the chance to move up and win the kind of big-time, risky race — for an office like governor or senator — that would position one or both for the presidency. If not for the political world’s infatuation with Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis, whose sensational filibuster against GOP-backed abortion restrictions made her a darling of the Democratic Party, and who is openly mulling her own bid for governor, it’s likely that one or both Castro brothers would feel greater pressure to roll the dice on a gubernatorial campaign in 2014.

Other Democratic allies of the duo point out that there’s at least a theoretical path for moving up faster than that: Back in 1984, a different San Antonio mayor, Henry Cisneros, made Walter Mondale’s vice presidential shortlist. If the 2016 cycle proceeds on its current trajectory and Democrats nominate a Clinton- or Biden-type candidate for president, it’s not impossible to imagine them taking a look at the party’s 2012 keynote speaker to add some vitality and diversity to the ticket.

Democratic pollster Sergio Bendixen, who worked for the Obama campaign and has consulted for the Castros, said there’s a space in Democratic politics for next-generation leaders who reflect the “emerging power base within the Hispanic community.” The Castros have a clearer path to playing that role by 2016 than any other Democrats at this point.

“There is no national figure in the Hispanic community right now,” he said. “[The Castros] might be a little better known than others. Since Henry Cisneros retired from political life, no one has been able to break out of a regional base.”

The brothers say that the point of their 2013 road show is straightforward, and really very simple: They are helping the Democratic Party deliver a message about economic and social opportunity. And Joaquin Castro noted that that as a member of the House minority, he has limited options for pushing an agenda through legislation rather than rhetoric.

“In terms of how different it is from a typical freshman experience — for me, I just kind of take it day to day. I don’t know any other experience, really,” he said.

While the congressman said he’s not “asking for any kind of chits” by touring the country, Joaquin Castro added: “I do believe generally that there is a kind of karma … when you’re helpful to other folks and you show that you care about them.”

Julian Castro also takes both a short- and long-term view of what he and his brother have accomplished this year.

“Who in politics, who likes public service, wouldn’t like the opportunity to go speak to a passionate group of people in these places? It’s fun,” he said. “And there’s also no doubt that there’s been a bigger spotlight, not just because of us individually, but because of what they think we may represent for the future.”