在退出2020年总统竞选后，前住房部长朱利安·卡斯特罗出现了雷切尔·玛多秀周四，他说爱荷华州核心小组使用的程序“没有任何意义”，民主党需要“成长”

“现在是我们作为民主党人成长起来，并愿意看看自己的房子的时候了，”卡斯特罗在谈到如何在党团会议中完成投票时说。“当共和党践踏投票权时，我们不得不抱怨、采取行动并提起诉讼，但我们不能就此止步。我们实际上也必须改进我们做事的方式，否则会有一点虚伪。”

卡斯特罗还描述了爱荷华州核心小组颁布的一些投票限制。

“如果你对爱荷华州的核心小组一无所知，”卡斯特罗说，“我对你说，‘好吧，听着。下面是我们如何开始这个过程。你只能在一天晚上7:00投票，没有提前投票，也没有无记名投票，所以你不能就投票方式进行无记名投票。你必须在每个人面前宣布你的投票方式。人们会认为共和党人设计了爱荷华州核心小组。"

卡斯特罗补充说:“我非常认为，这与我们在民主党争取更大投票权的努力是一致的，我们改变了总统提名程序的方式。”。"我不认为我们应该有这些核心小组。"

前总统候选人朱利安·卡斯特罗星期四对雷切尔·玛多说，总统提名过程不应该从“两个州开始，这两个州是一些最白人的州，没有有色人种”

“你是说核心小组程序本身有点保守，还是说核心小组程序天生对特定类型的候选人或竞选活动不公平？”麦德问道。

卡斯特罗回答说:“我认为以上都是事实。”然后他把爱荷华州核心小组缺乏无障碍环境作为残疾选民抱怨的一个原因。据称，工作但不能进行夜间投票的人要求提前投票或邮寄投票。

“这不存在，”卡斯特罗说。“除此之外，你在两个州开始你的提名过程，这两个州是白人最少的州，没有有色人种。”

“非常讽刺的是，我们一直告诉黑人妇女，‘你是我们的救星’”卡斯特罗继续说道。“‘你帮助我们赢得阿拉巴马。你帮助州长赢得了路易斯安那州的连任。“你是我们2020年的关键，”我们看到特朗普在2016年获胜是因为非裔美国人的投票率从四年前的66%下降到了59.5%，包括费城、底特律、密尔沃基等地，这些地方在这三个州都很重要，也是我们一直关注的州。同时，你开始在两个几乎没有黑人女性的州提名，一个黑人也没有。这没有任何意义。"

卡斯特罗周四在推特上发布的一段视频中宣布退出民主党竞选。

卡斯特罗在视频中说:“我们在这场比赛中塑造了许多重要问题的对话，为最脆弱的人群挺身而出，并为那些经常被遗忘的人发声。”。“但是距离爱荷华州核心会议只有一个月了，考虑到这个竞选季节的情况，我已经决定现在不是我们的时候。所以今天，我怀着沉重的心情和深深的感激之情，暂停我的总统竞选。”

卡斯特罗以他所称的“以人为本”的政策竞选总统，该政策包括结束美国的粮食不安全、加强工人在工会方面的权利以及美国承诺到2045年实现非零碳排放等计划。

JULIAN CASTRO TELLS DEMOCRATS TO 'GROW UP' AFTER DROPPING OUT OF 2020 RACE: YOU'D THINK 'REPUBLICANS DESIGNED THE IOWA CAUCUS'

After dropping out of the 2020 presidential race, former Housing Secretary Julian Castro appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show on Thursday, where he said the process used in the Iowa caucus "doesn't make any sense" and that Democrats need to "grow up."

"It's time for us to grow up as Democrats and to be willing to look at our own house," Castro said about how voting is accomplished in the caucuses. "We have to complain and take action and file suit when Republicans trample on voting rights but we can't stop there. We actually have to improve how we do things as well or else there's a little bit of hypocrisy there."

Castro also described some of the voting restrictions enacted at the Iowa caucus.

"If you didn't know anything about the Iowa caucus," Castro said, "and I said to you, 'Okay, look. Here's how we're going to start this process. You can only vote on one day at 7:00 in the evening, there's no early voting, there's no secret ballot, so you can't have a secret ballot about how you're voting. You have to declare in front of everybody how you're voting. People would think that Republicans designed the Iowa caucus."

"I very much see this as in keeping with our push in the Democratic party for greater ballot access and voting rights that we change the way that we do our presidential nominating process," Castro added. "I don't believe that we should have these caucuses."

Former presidential candidate Julian Castro told Rachel Maddow Thursday that the presidential nomination process should not begin in "two states that are some of the whitest states that lack people of color."

"Are you saying that the caucus process itself is sort of small 'c' conservative or that the caucus process is inherently unfair to specific types of candidates or types of campaigns?" Maddow asked.

"I think all of the above," Castro replied, before citing the lack of accessibility at the Iowas caucus as a source of complaint by voters with disabilities. People who work and cannot make a night time vote have allegedly asked for early voting or mail-in ballots.

"That doesn't exist," Castro said. "In addition to that, the fact that you start your nominating process in two states that are some of the whitest states, that lack people of color."

"It is very ironic that we keep telling black women, 'You're our saviors,'" Castro continued. "'You helped us win Alabama. You helped the governor win reelection in Louisiana. You're our key to 2020.' And we see what happened in 2016 that Trump won because African-American turnout fell from 66 percent four years earlier to 59.5 percent, including in places like Philadelphia, in Detroit, in Milwaukee, which are important in those three states, those states that we always obsess about. And at the same time, you start your nominating in two states that hardly have any black women, any black people at all. It doesn't make any sense."

Castro announced his departure from the Democratic race on Thursday in a video posted to Twitter.

"We've shaped the conversation on so many important issues in this race, stood up for the most vulnerable people, and have given a voice to those who are often forgotten," Castro said in the clip. "But with only a month until the Iowa caucuses and given the circumstances of this campaign season, I've determined that it simply isn't our time. So today it's with a heavy heart and profound gratitude that I will suspend my campaign for president."

Castro ran for president on what he called the "People First" policy, which included such plans as ending food insecurity in America, strengthening the rights of workers in regards to labor unions and a commitment for the U.S. to reach non-zero carbon emissions by 2045.