The Democratic National Convention’s first night was highlighted by Julian Castro, the telegenic Latino mayor from San Antonio with the mega watt smile. Democrats who want to be the party Latinos identify with were hoping Castro might help them with Hispanic voters but the RNC had Latinos too in Rubio, Martinez and Fortuño, so his relative success wasn’t assured.
But by one measure at least — Twitter mentions — Castro hit it out of the park.
With his Tweets per minute peak at 11,503, @juliancastro drove more conversation than any #GOP2012 speaker [other] than @mittromney.
— Twitter Government (@gov) September 5, 2012
Castro certainly succeeded in driving conversation online and he had no difficulty whipping partisans into a frenzy as he talked about being raised by his grandmother Victoria and his mother Rosie. Much of the Twitter reaction to Castro was positive.
Wow! @juliancastro is killing it delivering his speech! So proud to be a Texan, a Hispanic, an American!#dnc2012
— Eva Longoria (@EvaLongoria) September 5, 2012
“you can’t be pro-business without being pro-education.” Julian Castro #DNC2012 #msnbc2012
— Maria TeresaKumar (@MariaTeresa1) September 5, 2012
“My mother fought hard for civil rights, so instead of a mop, I could hold this microphone.” @juliancastro #latism
— Latino Rebels (@latinorebels) September 5, 2012
But not everyone was jumping onto the Castro love-fest. Jonny Torres, who works on the Republican National Convention digital team, made a quip about Torres’ smile and the debt under Obama while Republican strategist Christopher Oman tweeted about Castro’s success as mayor.
@realadrianc Hopefully it is, maybe he can loan it to BHO and pay down some of that 5 trillion he added to the national debt.
— Jonathan Torres (@JonnyTorres) September 5, 2012
FUN FACT —> San Antonio is $14 Billion in debt as Julian Castro enters 3rd term as mayor. #Fail #DNC2012
— Christopher Oman (@Chris_Oman) September 5, 2012
Nonetheless, the night belonged to Castro, who moved Latinos and non-Latinos by thanking his mother, who was in the crowd along with his wife and his adorable daughter. While Castro certainly captured attention on Twitter from the English-speaking crowd, a window into how well he did with Spanish-speaking Latinos came in the form of a worldwide trend on Twitter.
World Twitter trend update: #FLOTUS #2, Julian Castro #6, “Convención Demócrata” (Democratic Convention in Spanish) #10.
— Liz Heron (@lheron) September 5, 2012
