After majoring in animal science at Texas A&M, Perry joined the US Air Force, where he completed pilot training and flew C-130 transports. He left with the rank of captain, joined his father’s cotton farm, married his childhood sweetheart, and was elected to the Texas House of Representatives.
In 1989, Perry became a Republican (“I made both parties happy”), then won successive roles as Texas agriculture commissioner, lieutenant governor, and, in late 2000, governor.
Perry is curently the longest serving US governor. He is known as much for his stellar record creating private-sector jobs in Texas as for his syrupy accent and cufflinks-and-cowboy boots style.
I declare to you today as a candidate for President of the United States," Perry told a friendly crowd in South Carolina, host to the nation's third presidential primary.
Perry enters the race as a serious contender for the nomination, one with the potential to combine establishment support (and the strong fund-raising that comes with it) with the backing of social and fiscal conservatives.
Stylistically reminiscent of another Texas governor who sought the presidency - George W. Bush - Perry's calling card is Texas' strong record of job creation during his long tenure in the governor's mansion. As Perry pointed out in his speech, 40 percent of the nation's new jobs since June 2009 have been created in Texas.
"It's time to get America working again," Perry said, arguing that "Recovery is a meaningless word if the bank has foreclosed on your home.
While Perry spent some of his speech discussing his own record, he spent most of his time attacking the current occupant of the White House. He criticized Mr. Obama's "unbridled fixation" on spending and suggested the president's economic policies have "prolonged our national misery, not alleviated it."
"You cannot win the future by selling America off to foreign creditors," he said. "We cannot afford four more years of this rudderless leadership." The time had come, he added, to "stop the generational theft."
Change in America, Perry said, begins not with Washington but with the American people, "patriots who will not be consigned to a fate of less freedom in exchange for more government."
"We are indignant about leaders that do not listen and spend money faster than they can print it," Perry said, complaining of "central planners" who "downgrade our future and micromanage our lives."
"I'll work every day to try to make Washington, D.C., as inconsequential in your life as I can," he added.
Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said after the speech that Perry's "economic record is no miracle - it's a tall tale," a reference to the so-called "Texas miracle." As Democrats are quick to note, many of the jobs created in Texas under Perry have been low wage.
"Governor Perry allowed special interests to write their own rules, hired corporate lobbyists to oversee corporations, and cut funding for programs that would create opportunity for middle class families," said LaBolt. "In a Republican field that has already pledged allegiance to the Tea Party and failed to present any plan that will benefit the middle class or create the jobs America needs to win the future, Governor Perry offers more of the same.
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