There's already speculation that President Obama's selection of Julian Castro as the new Secretary of Housing and Urban Development is a bid to help the rising star get noticed by the as-yet-unofficial 2016 Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. It's hard to argue with the strength of a ticket headed by one of the most powerful and well-recognized women in the world and supported by an up-and-coming member of the second largest ethnic group in the country.

That's not to say that Castro isn't qualified for the HUD position — far from it. He's a well-liked politician with good approval ratings from constituents, in his third term as mayor of San Antonio, Texas, a city that's 63 percent Latino, according to U.S. Census figures. Raised by a single mother, he attended Stanford (along with his twin brother Joaquin), then Harvard Law before entering politics, a trajectory that's earned him well-deserved comparisons to Obama himself. Castro is an unabashed supporter of affirmative action, and his five years of experience as the head of a city with more than a million people makes HUD a good fit for him.

Perhaps Castro is being groomed for higher office, or maybe he serves as a counterpoint to all of the Latino Republicans on the national stage, including Florida Senator Marco Rubio, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, Idaho Representative Raul Labrador and New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez — some of whom will probably be running for president soon, in a bid to reverse Mitt Romney's dismal showing among Latinos during the last presidential election, when he lost 71 percent of the Hispanic vote, according to the Pew Research Center.

Assuming Castro makes it past Senate confirmation, which seems likely, the move elevates a popular Latino Democrat to a national position. There are other Latinos in Obama's Cabinet, including the Secretary of Labor and the head of the Small Business Administration, but they have little name recognition. Castro catapulted into the spotlight when he gave the keynote speech at the 2012 Democratic National Convention.

His nomination wasn't a surprise. Reliable rumors have been circulating all week, and the White House did nothing to quell them. Obama's official announcement occurred on a Friday afternoon, on a slow news day ahead of a long weekend, and the press release went out early the same morning, not buried at end-of-business. The White House wanted everyone to know this was happening.

Maybe they're simply touting their ongoing efforts to create a well-qualified, diverse administration. But Castro is a lot more high-profile than many of the other current Cabinet secretaries. And the top spot at HUD has hosted a few politically motivated individuals in the past: Andrew Cuomo, now governor of New York, and Jack Kemp, who ran for vice president beside Bob Dole in 1996. But George Romney, father to Mitt, only ended up at HUD in the 1970s after his failed presidential bid against Richard Nixon, and Henry Cisneros, the first Latino to lead the department, left public office afterward due to a financial scandal.

If Castro doesn't fall prey to the excesses of office, he'll have an excellent vantage point in the runup to 2016. But what does this White House — which won't be running again — get out of this appointment?

Judging from the remarks during the official announcement, they get a good personal story. Both Obama and Castro noted the nominee's family life, his immigrant grandmother, his low-income single mother and his unbridled confidence in the American dream. That served to showcase Castro's similarities to many of the people who require the services HUD provides, but it's also a pleasing narrative that's easy for political pundits and campaign ads to highlight.

And don't forget that Democrats face tough midterm elections later this year. Turnout is typically much lower in non-presidential election years for Democrats, particularly among minorities like African-Americans and Latinos. There's little chance the Republicans will pull much Latino support this year, given their intransigence on immigration reform, but Obama's record of deportations means many Hispanics will likely just stay home in November, unless the administration can do something to motivate them. Having a charismatic HUD Secretary traveling the country toeing the party line, preaching about a progressive combination of personal and government responsibility could help improve the showing at the polls.

And if Republicans begin attacking Castro before November, or the policies he's tasked with promoting, they'll likely suffer a strong backlash from the small percentage of Latinos who might have considered voting for them in the first place.