Former housing secretary and Democrat presidential candidate Julián Castro called for Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló to resign amid mass protests against Rosselló that have recently consumed the island.

“I don’t think that Rosselló can be effective anymore,” Castro said in an interview with BuzzFeed News. “The way they’ve treated the people of Puerto Rico, the administration has treated the people of Puerto Rico, I believe that he should resign.”

While other Democrat presidential candidates have shown solidarity with the people of Puerto Rico, Castro is the first Democrat presidential candidate to call for the resignation of Rosselló. Castro insisted that Puerto Rico needs “very strong leadership.”

“Unfortunately, just at a time when Puerto Rico needs very strong leadership, it doesn’t have that,” Castro added.

After the leak of online messages that show Rosselló using misogynistic slurs and mocking his constituents, protests erupted in the streets of Puerto Rico. Influential performers and thousands of Puerto Ricans marched to the governor’s residence in San Juan and demanded that he resign.

Castro was also the first Democrat presidential candidate to call for the resignation of Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, who came under fire for a yearbook photo that revealed two men in racially insensitive manners — one in blackface and the other donning Ku Klux Klan attire.

As reported by Breitbart News’s Washington Political Editor Matthew Boyle, “Castro was out with a statement before any of his 2020 rivals—declared or considering—and was perhaps the boldest, directly calling on Northam to resign immediately.”