The White House has tapped the 39-year-old mayor to head the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in a cabinet reshuffle that would result in current HUD Secretary, Shaun Donovan, leading the White House Office of Management and Budget, according to people familiar with the matter.
Mr. Castro is currently being vetted for the HUD post, with the White House expected to soon announce the selection, these people said. The White House didn't respond to a request for comment on Sunday and Mr. Castro declined to comment, according to a spokesman.
Now in his third term as mayor, Mr. Castro rocketed to national prominence in 2012 when he delivered a well-received, keynote address at the Democratic Party's convention.
A HUD posting at HUD would give him an opportunity to burnish his policy and management credentials at an agency that has served as a proving ground for other politicians, including New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Democrats, in turn, view Mr. Castro, whose grandmother emigrated from Mexico to the U.S. as an orphan, as someone who can energize Hispanic voters and potentially help the party eventually become more competitive in Texas, a GOP stronghold, according to Democratic officials and consultants. "He is certainly viewed as a rising star in the party who could very possibly be on a presidential ticket, as a vice president or higher," said Democratic strategist Doug Thornell.
Still, some question whether Mr. Castro has sufficient experience to head an agency with a roughly $45 billion budget and thousands of employees. Carlton Soules, a former Republican city councilman in San Antonio who is now running for county judge in Bexar County, which includes San Antonio, said the city has a "weak-mayor" form of government and that other city personnel handle much of day-to-day operations. "He has elevated the stature of the city, but he has not had to actually manage a large number of people," Mr. Soules said.
But Henry Cisneros, a former HUD secretary and mayor of the city, the nation's seventh largest, with about 1.4 million people, counters that Mr. Castro has helped run one of the nation's fastest-growing cities in a fiscally sound matter.
