Outside the Beltway

Outside the Beltway

Rick Perry Won’t Run For Re-Election

We won’t have Rick Perry to kick around any more.

James Joyner
11

We won’t have Rick Perry to kick around any more.

USA Today (“Texas Gov. Rick Perry says he won’t run again“):

Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Monday he will not seek re-election next year, bringing an end to a record run as chief executive of the Lone Star State.

“The time has come to pass on the mantle of leadership,” Perry said at a news conference in San Antonio surrounded by hundreds of supporters.

Perry, 63, is already the longest-serving governor in Texas history and has been the Lone Star state’s chief executive since December 2000 when George W. Bush left to become president. Perry’s departure sets up the biggest political shuffle in Texas since he took office.

The Republican was coy during an appearance onFox News Sunday about his future, saying only that another presidential bid was “an option out there.” He also said his attention is more focused now on a special session of the Texas Legislature, as lawmakers consider a ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy that would also close most of the state’s abortion clinics.

There are three reasons that Perry is not seeking re-election. The third is “Oops.”

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11 responses to “Rick Perry Won’t Run For Re-Election”

  1. Moosebreath Avatar
    Moosebreath

    “We won’t have Rick Perry to kick around any more.”

    Not likely. I suspect he wants to concentrate full time on a 2016 run for the white House.

  2. Facebones Avatar
    Facebones

    The Baby Jeebus doesn’t love me enough to have Rick Perry run for president. Although I am looking forward to the campaign posters:

    “Perry ’16! This time maybe not a complete embarrassment!”

  3. stonetools Avatar
    stonetools

    So next year the Teaxas governorship will pass from one idiot wingnut to another.
    And most likely, there will be more comedy gold in the 2016 presidential campaign. Great country or what?

  4. CSK Avatar
    CSK

    The Associated Press article I read said that Perry had ruled out a bid for the White House in 2016. So if he’s not going to go for the governorship, and he’s not going to go for the presidency, what is he going to do? Challenge Cornyn for the senate? Somehow I can’t see him accepting a professorship of political science at, say, Texas A&M.

    He’s only 63, which nowadays is sort of late adolescence for a politician.

  5. Latino_in_Boston Avatar
    Latino_in_Boston

    That sound you hear is late night comics celebrating because they suspect he has decided to run in 2016.

    I sure hope so.

  6. Gromitt Gunn Avatar
    Gromitt Gunn

    Our next Gov. will be current AG Greg Abbott. *sigh*

  7. ernieyeball Avatar
    ernieyeball

    Perry, 63, is already the longest-serving governor in Texas history and has been the Lone Star state’s chief executive since December 2000…

    Some citizens think that term limits are the elixir for whatever partisan affliction infects our republic.
    It is my opinion that those who advocate for this reduction of political freedom can not count the Texas Legislature as one of the “two thirds of the several States” to apply to Congress to for a new Constitutional Convention. Nor can they expect The Lone Star assembly to vote to ratify a “Term Limit Amendment”.

  8. Sam Malone Avatar
    Sam Malone

    I think he’s going to “pray on it” for a while…then pretend god an imaginary being told him to run.
    And all the zealots will swoon.

  9. HarvardLaw92 Avatar
    HarvardLaw92

    @Gromitt Gunn:

    Our next Gov. will be current AG Greg Abbott. *sigh*

    You have our most profound sympathies …

  10. Facebones Avatar
    Facebones

    @CSK:

    So if he’s not going to go for the governorship, and he’s not going to go for the presidency, what is he going to do?

    I’d imagine he’ll get a lot of positions on the boards of oil companies. He gets a check for doing next to nothing, they get the influence of a former governor. Pretty much like the arrangement they currently have.

  11. edmondo Avatar
    edmondo

    I will never understand why the Democrats are so looking forward to a Perry presidential campaign. Personally he scares the living shit out of me.

    I mean, it’s not like this country has never elected a buffoonish, brain dead Texan to the presidency before.

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