Perry’s declaration is expected to come in a 1 p.m. speech at the RedState conference in Charleston, S.C.
Once the Texan takes the plunge, former Gov. Mitt Romney (Mass.) will be presented with a conservative challenger who is widely seen as more electable than other tribunes of the right such as Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.) and former Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.), and more charismatic than other alternatives such as former Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
Even last month, when Perry's entry into the race was by no means assured, a Gallup poll placed him a close second to Romney.
Also on Saturday, the Ames straw poll in Iowa may deliver a boost to some of the more marginal candidates — or drive them to the brink of withdrawal from the race. (Neither Romney nor Perry are competing in the straw poll.)
And this comes on top of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s decision to turn up at the Iowa State Fair on short notice Friday, reigniting speculation about a potential presidential run.
It all adds up to a serious upshifting of gears in a race that had been overshadowed in recent weeks by the battle over the national debt ceiling and the broader economic tumult.
Perry's announcement comes in the middle of the busiest four days in the Republican calendar so far, with all the candidates concentrated in Iowa, where the first of the party caucuses is scheduled for February.
The eight declared candidates, plus Perry, are seeking the Republican nomination to take on Barack Obama as he looks for a second White House term next November.
Perry did not take part in the debate in Ames, Iowa, on Thursday because he is not yet officially a candidate, but he is scheduled to visit the state on Sunday.
With the skirmishing almost over and the contest becoming serious, the only major question left is whether former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin will join the race.
Palin kept speculation alive by putting in an appearance at the Iowa state fair, an agricultural show where the candidates were scheduled to make stump speeches throughout Friday.
Republicans in Iowa expressed resentment about the timing of Perry's announcement, which threatens to overshadow party events in the state this weekend. A straw poll of candidates, described by the organisers as the most important event in the Republican nomination calendar outside an election year, is to be held on Saturday night.
But Perry supporters in Iowa insisted the timing was not deliberately disruptive and that Saturday was the earliest he could have made the announcement.
Bob Schuman, a Perry supporter speaking on his behalf in the spin room after the debate, said Perry had said he would not make his announcement until after an evangelical prayer rally in Houston last Saturday and had stuck to that promise.
Although Perry was not in the debate, Schuman, in the spin room under a placard "Americans for Rick Perry", attracted as much media attention as representatives of the other candidates and even some of the candidates themselves.
Asked how Perry, who makes much of a record of job growth in Texas compared with the national unemployment rate of 9.1%, would campaign against Obama if he won the Republican nomination, he said: "Jobs versus no jobs."
But Obama's campaign adviser, David Axelrod, interviewed by ABC, challenged Perry's performance as governor. "When you examine the entire record, what's happened to education in that state, what's happened to healthcare in that state, it's a record of decimation, not of progress," Axelrod said.
Reviewing the debate, Schuman said: "No one really jumped out. Romney has made a decision to play safe but he can't keep doing that."
He looked forward to the next debate, in California in September, when Perry will be on the stage with the other candidates. "It will be very different next time," Schuman said.
Robert Haus, a veteran political campaigner in Iowa, who helped run the failed campaign of actor and Republican Fred Thompson in 2008, has to remain neutral until after this weekend because he is organising the straw poll. But, asked about Perry, he was enthusiastic.
"Perry is a candidate that can bridge the differences in the Republican party. He has a strong record on jobs in Texas and is deeply religious," Haus said, after a meeting of the right-wing Heritage group in Ames. "He can calm any angry room inside the Republican party."
Iowa, though a small state whose demographics, mainly white, are not typical of the US as a whole, plays a pivotal role in US politics as traditionally the first state to vote in either caucuses or primaries. A good showing can sink a campaign or propel a candidate from obscurity to frontrunner status.
The straw poll tonight, though invested with huge importance by some of the candidates, has with hindsight proved to be a poor indicator of the eventual result in Iowa.
The liveliest parts of the two-hour debate in Ames were feisty exchanges between Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who is close to the Tea Party movement, and the former governor of Minnesota, Tim Pawlenty, a dull campaigner who has so far failed to make much of an impression.
Needing to win or at least achieve a second or third place in the straw poll, Pawlenty denigrated the record in Congress of Bachmann, who is the frontrunner in polls in Iowa. Adopting a patronising tone, he said Bachmann had done little in her five years in Congress. "She has done some wonderful things in her life but it is an indisputable fact that her record of accomplishment and results is nonexistent," he said.
But he picked on the wrong candidate. Bachmann came back recalling his record in office as governor on health, energy and trade. "That sounds a lot more like Barack Obama's record," she said.
Although Bachmann appeared flustered and at one point even disappeared briefly from the stage, with the television anchor telling viewers that one of the debate candidates was missing, Pawlenty repeatedly fluffed his prepared lines.
Afterwards, in the spin-room, Nick Ayers, Pawlenty's campaign manager, accused Bachmann of starting the fight, claiming she had gone along to the debate with "a pre-planned assault full of misstatements and factual inaccuracies".
Former governor of Utah Huntsman made his debate debut. He has struggled in the polls, too close to the centre for many conservatives and also, unforgivable for many Republicans, he worked in the Obama administration as ambassador to China.
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