Senator Kamala Harris and then ohio congressman tim ryan from the youngstown area. Time, senator Amy Klobuchar of minnesota. Senator kirsten gillibrand. Governor John Hickenlooper at 4 00 eastern time. Then senator Elizabeth Warren, and that would be followed by senator court worker senator cory booker of new jersey. Bit of political news from south carolina, senator tim scott says he will run for reelection in 2022, but that will be his last political race. He took over when jim demint resigned the position. He was appointed as a member of the house to the senate seat by thengovernor nikki haley. He will step down when his term is completed. He is up again in 2022. This is an aerial view of the iowa state fair. Coming up from this morning, julian castro, housing secretary in the Obama Administration, former mayor of san antonio, among the speakers this morning at the Des Moines Register political soapbox. [applause] mr. Castro good morning. alls great to be with y in des moines at the iowa state fire. Thank you for iowa state fair. Thank you very much, rachel, and all those who helped organize this. I note des moines is proud of the state there and you have reason to be. Im excited because im here with my family. My wife, erika, and our daughter and son. [cheers and applause] mr. Castro this is a real treat for me because i dont often get to travel with my family. I think they are looking forward to the bumper cars and maybe the bacon thatnd that yall sell on a stick. [laughter] mr. Castro i want to talk to you this morning about what were going to become as a nation. Wentink of we went if we around his car and listen to the stories of your family, we would hear a lot of stories that reflect the best of our nation, of the American Dream coming true. That is true in my case, too. I grew up with my brother joaquin and my grandmother and mom on the west side of san antonio. My grandmother had come to san antonio when she was seven years old with her younger sister because their parents had died. They came from northern mexico through eagle pass, texas, in 1922, and ended up on the west side of the city. She got yanked out of school in elementary, so she never got a formal education. She worked her entire career as a maid, cook, and a babysitter. She raised my mom as a single parent and my mom raised my brother and me as a single parent, too. My mom became the first in a family to get to graduate from high school and go on to college. My brother and i had the opportunity to go to stanford and then to harvard law school. We went together, because you cant get rid of my brother. [laughter] mr. Castro he likes to say that the way to tell us apart is im one minute uglier than he has. [laughter] mr. Castro but its not true, im a minute older. I got a chance to come home and be elected to the city council and be the first in my family along with my brother to be a professional as an attorney. Yearsen server for four on the city council in san antonio until i ran for mayor at 30. I was trying to become the youngest elected mayor in san antonio at the time, running against a gentleman who was 70 tried to be the second oldest. But hein a close runoff, had term limits so i came back four years later. It is a city of falls 1. 5 Million People now. I got a call in 2014 from president barack obama. I remember the date because it is not everyday day that the president calls you and asks if you want a job. I had just driven through the drivethrough at hand that express at panda express. [laughter] mr. Castro you know how on your unknown ors blocked call . It said private. If you ever get a call that says fivprivate, answer the phone. I ended up serving as secretary of housing and urban development. 64 field offices across the United States. All ofo see in that time the ways that communities across this country are grappling not only with housing but with everything that goes along with that, the fact that where you live often determines the quality of your childs education, what kind of Job Opportunities you have. It determines in many communities, especially rural the kind here in iowa, of helped her axis you have, because too many hospitals have had to close, or they have had to close Psychiatric Care or ob gyn care. In places like flint, michigan, it determines something as simple as whether you can drink clean water. Im running for president because i believe that we live in the greatest nation on earth, because i know that we need a president that understand that in the years to come we need to move forward as one nation with one destiny. And i am convinced that our destiny in the years to come is to be the smartest, the healthiest, the fairest, and the most prosperous nation on earth. Smartest from healthiest, the fairest, and the most prosperous nation on a. We need to start with universal prek for three and fouryearolds. [laughter] [cheers and applause] mr. Castro when i was mayor of san antonio, we did something about that. So somein texas, and people wondered about that. But more than 52 of the voters in san antonio said yes to investing in our fouryearolds. [cheers and applause] mr. Castro today san antonio has one of the best prek programs in the country because of it. Education by12 paying teachers what they deserve, by reducing class sizes, by making sure that no matter the need of the child they can have been met by the school they go to. Because too often times the parents of special Needs Children feel like there have to be lawyers to argue with the bureaucracy to get what they need for their child. That should not be the weight it thannd we can do better that. For the first time in our nations history, we are competing and collaborating with countries around the world that are producing tons and tons of young people that are intelligent and ambitious and creative and innovative. That means on our end we dont have a Single Person to waste. We need to do two things. Number one, we need to make sure that Higher Education is available and affordable to everybody who graduates from high school, tuition free public state universities, community colleges, job training and certification programs. And that we reinvest trade programs into our high schools so that folks can get gainful employment and make a good living if they choose not to go to Higher Education. [applause] mr. Castro if we are going to be the healthiest nation on earth, we need a Different Health care system. Like many of yall, i grew up with a grandmother, and maybe for you it was your parents or a sibling or other relatives, but my grandmother had diabetes. She was a type two diabetic. I watched her get worse and worse as i got older and older. Until she had to have one of her feet amputated for she passed away. That whole time she had medicare. I want to strengthen medicare for the people who are on it and make sure it is available to every Single Person who wants it in this country. [applause] mr. Castro i also believe that if you have a private Health Insurance plan that is strong and solid that you want to hold onto, you should be able to hold onto that. We should be able to do both of those things. What i dont believe is that the profit motive of big pharma or Big Insurance Companies should ever determine whether somebody gets the health care they need in our country. [cheers and applause] mr. Castro nobody should have to travel to canada or mexico to get medication or a dental procedure or a medical procedure. We need to end this distinction between physical health care and Mental Health care and invest in Mental Health care. [cheers and applause] mr. Castro if we are going to be the fairest nation on earth, we need to reimagine our criminal Justice System. Too many young people of different backgrounds from different places get caught up in a criminal justice is an that puts a big black x on their record, that means they cannot get a good job in the future, they cannot get housing, they can never get on the productive path in life they want to be on. We need t sentencing reform, we need to do cashbail reform, and do things like legalized marijuana and invest in diversion programs so people dont get caught up in the system in the first place. [applause] mr. Castro and we also need to make sure that no matter what the color of your skin is, how much money you have, or what neighborhood you live in, you are treated the same way by law enforcement. Im the only candidate was put forward a plan to reform policing and United States. Policing in the United States. [cheers and applause] mr. Castro we have seen video after video after video that shows us that unfortunately, especially if you are young black man in the United States, oftentimes you are treated differently in this country, and that shouldnt be the case. My plan would add transparency and a con ability to the Police Department and make sure we invest in groups that are trying the criminal Justice System begins with a cop on the street. So many cops do a great job but i believe it is not the case of bad apples out there. The system is broken and we need to fix it. My plan would fix it. [applause] mr. Castro we also need to do things like pass the equality act so no matter your Sexual Orientation or gender identity you cant be discriminated against. We wont have secondclass citizens in United States of america. [applause] up with a i grew single mom. I watched how hard my mother worked to support me and my brother and her mom, my grandmother. We need to ensure women get equal pay for equal work in our country. And that we passed the equal rights amendment. Defend athat we womans right to choose because it is under assault right now in our country. [applause] going too if we are be the most prosperous nation on earth it has to mean prosperity for everybody. Recently congress, the house of representatives passed legislation to raise the minimum weight to 15 an hour. The senate needs to pass that as well and the president should sign it. We need to make sure people can earn a good living and provide for their families. Means that we need to support labor so unions can represent workers and worker productivity that has been on the rise for so many years can be matched by the wages and benefits people get. Right now that is not happening in our country. Too many people that are working 40, 50, 60 hours a week are struggling to pay the rent. You see that in des moines. You have seen the rents go up tremendously over the last several years. That means we need to do things like invest in housing that is affordable for the middle class and for the working poor and the poor. I have a plan to create more photo Affordable Housing so we can do just that and people can have a safe, decent, affordable place to live because i see housing as a human right. I dont believe in this, the wealthiest nation on earth anyone to sleep on the streets. Especially our veterans. Too many veterans make up the homeless in this country. I know we can do it because in the Obama Administration i, along with many others worked hard and we reduced veteran homelessness between 2010 and 2016 by 47 . Imagine that. Washington working the way it should. We can do that again. If we are going to be the most prosperous nation, it means we need to reform our immigration system. We need to harness the potential of immigrants. Raidaw just yesterday the in mississippi where they rounded up 680 people. There were little kids, little children that were wondering whether parents were. They got out of school and they did not know where they were. We can do better than this. We can fix our broken immigration system so we put undocumented immigrants as long as they have not committed a serious crime on a pathway to sit his ship. We end family separation and detention. And we fix the Legal Immigration system because people have to wait too long to become a citizen right now. Like a 20o do things Marshall Plan for honduras, el salvador, guatemala, so people can find safety and opportunity at home instead of having to come to the United States. That is the smarter, more effective, more humane way to do immigration than what we are doing right now. Finally, if we are going to prosper in the years ahead when need to address the most existential threat to our country. We need to combat Climate Change. My first exec it of what it would be to rejoin the paris climate accord, then to invest in agree new deal so we can create jobs and also get the net zero in the years ahead. You weet anybody tell cant do both of those things. You know that here in iowa. We know it in texas in the wind energy, the solar energy. We can create great jobs in the economy and also attacked our planet and ensure we get to net zero that we have clean water and clean air. All of that is possible. Before we do that we need new leadership. I dont want to make our country anything again. I do want us to go backwards. I want to make our country better than its ever been. I want to move forward going into the future to create great opportunity for everybody. [applause] i got tested very early on in my tenure. I went back home. I got a good job. I bought a house, a car. I had nine intra 50 in student loan payments. Nine intoplane 50 in student loan payments. I got elected to the city council. The city council only paid 1000 a year back then even though we were a city of one Million People. The law firm i was at got a client. They wanted to do a land deal. The land deal was they wanted to put a golf course over our water supply. We relied on an underground aquifer. I was against it because i had a concern about their environment a plan. I did not think it was strong enough. I thought the chemicals you use on a golf course might seep into the water supply and compromise it. I wanted to vote against it. Under the ethics rules for lawyers in texas, because there are ethics rules for lawyers believe it or not, you cant just go against the client like that. I was stuck. On the one hand my constituents want me to vote against it. They wanted me to represent them and do the right thing. On the other hand, my livelihood depended on me shutting up and saying i had a conflict of interest. One day i walked into my law firm and i quit my job and that i went and i voted against that land deal on the city council. Because before i ever went into politics i worried i would have to change who i was to succeed. You hear that policies can be dirty or corrupting. You have to play this game with people that usually get their way or special interests that have a lot of control. I was happy that when that first test came when i was 27 years old that i stood up and do the right thing did the right thing for the people i was there to represent. Nobody gets tested more than the president of the United States. This president has failed that test. I want you to know if im elected president , i will keep my eye on the ball. I will work hard every day for the so you and your family can have good health care, that your children and grandchildren can get a good education so they can reach their dreams, and you can have good Job Opportunities whether you live in a small town or in a big city. Im not taking any federal lobbyist money or packed money in this campaign pac money in this campaign. This campaign is fueled by the people of the United States. Little by little, week by week, month my month we are getting stronger. I believe we will keep working hard. I believe there are many folks here it will be ambassadors of this campaign and spread the good word throughout iowa because yall go first. We need you. Talk to your friends, your neighbors, your families, your coworkers. I hope we will keep getting stronger and that by february 3 when the Iowa Caucuses come around i can be a front runner and go want to do well on super tuesday and defeat donald trump on november 3, 2020. 2021, we will say adios to donald trump. Thank you very much. Thank you all very much. [crowd talking] what was the question again . What was the intent of your brothers tweet . Mr. Castro i believe americans have the right to freely associate. There are all types of newspapers. All types of organizations that put out information about who contributes to who. That is nothing new. Was that heintent was lamenting the fact you have so many folks, these big businesses in san antonio who made their livelihood off the Hispanic Community in san antonio that are propping up a president who is clearly racist, who is encouraging hate and division against the Hispanic Community. I believe people need to know what businesses in that city that are profiting off the backs of hispanic customers are turning around and putting that money into the pockets of a politician in donald trump that is actively making the lives of hispanics in this country worse. On guns you have been very critical of the president. We are hearing him say just now he wants to see meaningful change on background checks. Do you give him credit for trying to push traction on this . Mr. Castro i will give him credit when i see him signed legislation that an annex common sense gun safety legislation. The media of all people should have figured out what his playbook is by now. His playbook very clearly is that he says what he needs to say in the heat of the moment. You will notice for instance he will say we will have a plan on that in a few days, or we wil