Mr. Perry’s entrance into the already crowded field is expected to reconfigure the dynamics of the race, offering Republicans both a fiscal and social conservative who appeals not only to the party’s base on social issues but also one who can challenge Mitt Romney, who is leading in many polls, over jobs and the economy.
In a posting on his campaign Web site, Mr. Perry said that Americans, “will not sit back and accept our current misery.” “A great country requires a better direction,” he said on the site, and “a renewed nation requires a new president.”
NEW YORK TIMES
James Richard "Rick" Perry (born March 4, 1950) is the 47th and current Governor of Texas. A Republican, Perry was elected Lieutenant Governor of Texas in 1998 and assumed the governorship in December 2000 when then-governor George W. Bush resigned to become President of the United States. Perry was elected to full gubernatorial terms in 2002, 2006 and 2010. Perry served as Chairman of the Republican Governors Association in 2008 (succeeding Sonny Perdue of Georgia) and again in 2011. Perry is the longest-serving governor in Texas state history. As a result, he is the only governor in modern Texas history to have appointed at least one person to every eligible state office, board, or commission position (as well as to several elected offices to which the governor can appoint someone to fill an unexpired term, such as six of the nine current members of the Texas Supreme Court).
Perry won the Texas 2010 Republican gubernatorial primary election, defeating U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and former Wharton County Republican Party Chairwoman and businesswoman Debra Medina.[3][4][5] In the 2010 Texas gubernatorial election, Perry won a third term by defeating former Houston mayor Bill White and Kathie Glass. /Wikipedia
