Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX) pulled his endorsement of 2020 Democratic candidate Julian Castro on Sunday and announced that he was backing Castro’s 2020 rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, instead.
Anyone who supports someone other than the eventual winner will have to switch their endorsement prior to the general election. Let’s just hope that Rep. Gonzalez has to switch again. (Assuming they don’t want to go 3rd party, or tRump)
“And that’s why I believe I’m moving my support to Vice President Joe Biden.”
I’d feel better if he knew why he was moving his support. The GOP offers enough unfounded belief for both parties.
This is good, the field winnowing really needs to start now…all of the viable candidates have been on stage together so people could compare. If any of the non-viable ones don’t make any polling traction in the next couple weeks they really should jump out, because if they aren’t making waves now then it’s highly unlikely that they will get into the top five in the next three months.
It’s also good that Castro is being punished…the Democrats need to show their policy divisions while remaining united against Trump, and anything like what Castro did distracts from the unity. Biden isn’t my choice, but calling him old or implying he’s senile only helps Trump, because Biden supporters will get pissed off just like Sanders supporters did last time. There have to be no hard feelings after the campaign, so Trump and the Russians can’t drive a wedge that hurts the Democratic candidate. Castro should be the object lesson…he may have hurt his chances at the VP slot by pulling that stunt, that’s really the race he should realize he’s running at this point.
Castro had no shot (neither does Beto really), switching to one of the Top 5 or Top 3 makes sense.
Any candidate who can’t get above 5 or 6% in the aggregate isn’t even a contender for Vice President. Time to cut your losses and protect spot you’ve already won.
I wonder how much it cost to buy him off. Probably the DNC threatened to cut off his campaign funding if he didn’t switch. Biden is looking so bad the DNC is resorting to threats to keep him in the race. Biden won’t get the progressive vote out, or the woman’s vote out, or the college vote out, or the youth vote out. Hillary all over again.
I find it curious that Castro is the second candidate who came into a debate with a planned and rehearsed attack on Biden and managed to shoot themself.
It would be an odd twist if Biden became the Democratic Reagan. Teflon?
Riiiiiiight… That’s why he continually leads in the polls.
Regardless who he’s supporting, I totally agree with this:
“If you’re polling in the low single-digits and you’re not raising any resources, and you’re fracturing your party and you’re just getting your supporters to be upset at other candidates, it certainly can’t be a good thing for our party,”
Well, we’re not Pavlov’s dogs (I hope).
Ding!
Maybe biden knows how to fight back.
If low poll numbers is a concern, why not support Warren?
Castro is a credible VP choice for someone like Warren and is pushing hard in a left leaning way. It is curious to jump to him to Biden.
Het this guy onto TPM El Pronto!
It’s obvious that he’s unaware of what a terrible candidate old white guy Biden is.
There are those here who can set him straight 
During the 2016 Republican Presidential candidate debates, Marco Rubio sunk to Trump’s level and made stupid, inappropriate remarks about him. It backfired. Castro has done something similar during this years Democratic Presidential debates and it backfired. One can only hope that gutter tactics will sink Donnie this time around. He’s a slob.
Woof.
Sounds good to me. Reagan got two terms.
I know the “Never Joe” caucus dominates TPM, including such brilliant suggestions as a Warren-Castro ticket. Terrific.
Biden’s greatest support comes from black voters and those over 65, two essential groups for a democrat. He does not excite the Twitter crowd.
Hillary’s campaign, in my view, was characterized by trying to get the voters she wanted at the expense of the voters she needed.