ST. LOUIS (AP) – Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry ended his second bid for the Republican presidential nomination on Friday, becoming the first major candidate of the 2016 campaign to give up on the White House.
The longest-serving governor in Texas history told a group of conservative activists in St. Louis that “some things have become clear” and he was suspending his campaign.
“We have a tremendous field of candidates – probably the greatest group of men and women,” Perry said. “I step aside knowing our party is in good hands, as long as we listen to the grassroots, listen to that cause of conservatism. If we do that, then our party will be in good hands.”
Four years after his first bid for the White House ended after disappointing finishes in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, Perry this time couldn’t even make it to the second debate night of the 2016 race.
After failing to poll well enough to qualify for the featured prime-time debate last month, Perry was again relegated to a pre-debate forum for the back of the pack at next week’s debate at the Reagan Library outside Los Angeles.
He delivered a stronger performance at that first debate than he did four years ago, when he couldn’t remember the third federal agency he’d promised to close if elected and muttered, “Oops” – a moment that doomed his bid in 2012.
But few noticed in a GOP campaign dominated by billionaire Donald Trump, who stole away Perry’s Iowa campaign chairman after Perry was forced to suspend paying members of his staff as his campaign fundraising dried up.
A group of super PACs, largely funded by three big Perry backers, briefly kept him afloat by raising $17 million, hiring their own Iowa staff and producing television and digital ads and mailers. His decision Friday appeared to come as a surprise to those groups.
A pro-Perry super PAC emailed its supporters Friday morning saying it was back on television in Iowa to promote his candidacy. A Twitter message from the group sent later in the morning further emphasized, “In It For the Long Haul.”