Julian Castro

“You know, I'm not unwilling to listen to people just because where they're coming from. I'll listen to them, but I'm not going to be beholden to them.”

“Being the keynote speaker at the convention this year is an honor I don't take lightly. I know I've got some big shoes to fill. Two conventions ago, the keynote speaker was a guy named Barack Obama.”

“Of all the fictions we heard last week in Tampa, the one I find most troubling is this: If we all just go our own way, our nation will be stronger for it. Because if we sever the threads that connect us, the only people who will go far are those who are already ahead.”

“Mitt Romney, quite simply, doesn't get it.”

“Seven presidents before him - Democrats and Republicans - tried to expand health care to all Americans. President Obama got it done.”

“I focus on telling the truth and painting a vision of what the country can become in the future if we make the right investments together in things like health care, and education, and jobs and opportunity.”

“I consider myself a pretty progressive person, and I think I have a track record that shows that. But I'm also not just going to do a policy because it's the liberal thing to do.”

“If you're willing to work hard and play by the rules, you should be able to move up.”

“I wanted more people from my city to be able to have the kind of opportunity that I had.”

“I started when I was 39 as a cabinet secretary, and so I feel like I have lived an experience in my life where I can relate to families that struggle, and are scraping by and scrounging.”

“I grew up in a Texas where people would say, 'I didn't leave the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party left me.' Now, the reverse is happening. People are leaving the Republican Party because the Republican Party is going too far to the right in Texas. And that's a source of great potential support for Democrats.”

“Our families don't always cross the finish line in the span of one generation. But each generation passes on to the next the fruits of their labor.”

“We all understand that freedom isn't free. What Romney and Ryan don't understand is that neither is opportunity. We have to invest in it.”

“Hopefully, in not a too distant future, we will see a Latino president, and who knows how's that going to happen. It's just a matter of time.”

“In my plan, I call for breaking up ICE and returning its enforcement functions to the Department of Justice.”

“The destiny of the Latino community is interwoven with the destiny of the United States.”

“My grandmother didn't live to see us begin our lives in public service. But she probably would have thought it extraordinary that just two generations after she arrived in San Antonio, one grandson would be the mayor and the other would be on his way - the good people of San Antonio willing- to the United States Congress.”

“I understand Spanish better than I speak it.”

“I can understand the value of the immigrant experience and that we have become the nation that we are because people like my grandmother were able to make a life in this country.”

“The Tea Party definitely scored a significant victory with Senator Cruz's election in 2012 and scored victories in some statewide primaries. But to me, as the Tea Party gets stronger within the Republican Party in Texas, the prospect of a blue Texas becomes stronger and stronger.”