Texas Mayor Will Be First Latino To Give DNC Keynote

UPDATE: San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro will deliver the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in September, the party announced on Tuesday, the first time a Latino has taken the high-profile slot.

The move  illustrates the central role of the Latino vote to the Obama campaign, the Washington Post notes. In 2008, 67 percent of Hispanic voters supported the president; turn out rates in November could be make or break for Obama in closely contested states like Florida, Nevada, and Colorado.

Michelle Obama will also speak on the first day of the DNC, which kicks off Sept. 4 in Charlotte, N.C.

At 37, Castro is the youngest mayor of a major U.S. city. Being named as the keynote speaker marks him as a rising star in the party, according to the Associated Press. In 2004, then-Illinois State Senator Barack Obama filled the same role at the convention in Boston.

“We’ve come so far over the past three and a half years under Obama’s leadership," Castro said in a video announcing his selection. "And I know he’s not done yet. We got a lot more work to do."

Also on the agenda: Elizabeth Warren is slated for a high-profile slot on Sept. 5, the same day former President Bill Clinton is scheduled to speak. Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will take the stage at prime time on the final night.

Monday, July 30: It’s still the economy, stupid.

Democratic party officials tell CNN and other outlets that Bill Clinton will be given a key, prime-time slot during this summer's Democratic National Convention to make a forceful defense of President Obama's economic policies at a time when the national unemployment rate is hovering around 8 percent.

Sources tell the Associated Press that Obama personally asked Clinton to speak at the convention and to place Obama's name in nomination, an offer the former president enthusiastically accepted. Clinton's expected to take center stage in Charlotte, N.C., on Sept. 5, the third day of the four-day convention.

"There isn’t anybody on the planet who has a greater perspective on not just the last four years, but the last two decades, than Bill Clinton," Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod told the New York Times, trumpeting the decision to have the popular former president take on what has proved to be they key issue of this election season.

Clinton first spoke at the DNC in 1988 when he gave the opening-night address, and he has spoken at every convention since.