A new survey from Public Policy Polling shows that Texas voters aren’t enamored with the idea of Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) running for president again. Or even reelection to his current gig.
“The White House is definitely not in Perry’s future though if Texans have anything to say about it,” PPP, a Democratic-leaning firm, wrote in its analysis of its statewide survey. “Only 19% of voters think he should run for President again to 73% who think he should not, and even among Republicans just 31% think he should make another bid for chief executive.”
And when it comes to Perry retaining the governor’s mansion, Texans are similarly wary — only 29 percent of voters say he should run again for the state’s top office in 2014, against 64 percent who say he should hang up his boots. Seventy-three percent of independent voters do not believe Perry should run, while 49 percent of Republicans say he should try again.
Perry’s meteoric rise and subsequent fall in the Republican presidential race marked a phase of the campaign before the Iowa caucuses in which voters were desperate for alternatives — the governor came in as a possible savior, a conservative chief executive of a major state and popular with the tea party to boot. He shot to the top of the polls in August. But once he began campaigning, his weaknesses quickly became exposed on the national stage.
Perry put together a poor series of performances in debates, forgetting prepared lines and fumbling to explain his positions. He called Social Security a “Ponzi scheme,” expressed doubts about evolution and said global warming might be a scheme cooked up by scientists in order continue funding their research.
His support in the polls plateaued then fell off, leading to a fifth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses and a sixth-place finish in the New Hampshire primary. Perry bowed out before the South Carolina contest.
Relive some of Perry’s best campaign moments:
