Julián Castro came out against Iowa’s status as the first-in-the-nation caucus, saying “I believe it’s time our primaries reflect our nation’s diversity”:

I was asked today in Iowa about the order of our primaries. I appreciate how seriously Iowa & New Hampshire take their role as first-in-the-nation. But we’ve changed in the 50 years since order was established—and I believe it’s time our primaries reflect our nation’s diversity. pic.twitter.com/mY0EvnhXNr — Julián Castro (@JulianCastro) November 11, 2019

Castro is polling under 1% in Iowa which may explain his comment:

New Iowa poll from Quinnipiac:

Warren 20%

Buttigieg 19%

Sanders 17%

Biden 15%

Klobuchar 5%

Harris 4%

Gabbard 3%

Steyer 3%

Yang 3%

No other candidate over 1%

52% of those surveyed with a first choice say they might change their minds. Error margin is 4.5%. https://t.co/gnoiSUSlh9 — Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) November 6, 2019

It’s pretty clear that this was a shot at Elizabeth Warren:

Interestingly, this was after host asked Castro about pal Warren recently punting on Q about early-state order. Castro took care to 1st praise her outreach to different communities and sympathize w/ her sentiment about candidates being at mercy of rules: https://t.co/srGw32AoC2 — Patrick Svitek (@PatrickSvitek) November 11, 2019

Oh, and Castro signed a pledge to support Iowa’s FITN status, so his signature is basically worthless at this point:

Here is the signed pledge Castro’s campaign sent to the @iowademocrats where Secretary Castro pledged “to support Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucus status on the presidential nominating calendar.” https://t.co/SotTRCJUJe pic.twitter.com/lHTvDIZ9FB — Dan Merica (@merica) November 11, 2019

And, not surprisingly, he pulled out of New Hampshire as well:

Tonight: After rarely campaigning in NH in recent months and then shutting down NH campaign, @JulianCastro now wants #fitn primary (& #IAcaucus) "reordered" out of leadoff roles because "demographically it's not reflective of the United States as a whole" #nhpolitics #WMUR pic.twitter.com/PMRLUsd6v6 — John DiStaso (@jdistaso) November 11, 2019

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