Rick Perry’s Road to Iowa
Rick Perry has spent the last few days before tonight's caucuses rallying his supporters. Photo by Ben Philpott/KUT NewsAudio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Tonight’s Iowa caucuses will likely determine how much longer Gov. Rick Perry stays in the GOP presidential race. It’s been a challenging trip from announcement to caucus night.
It all started August 13 in Charleston, S.C.
“I declare to you today as a candidate for president of the United States,” Governor Perry told the crowd, formally launching his bid for the Republican nomination.
Since then, Perry has held 143 campaign events. He’s spent most of December–and 35 days total–in Iowa, making over 80 stops. His campaign spent $2 million on TV ads. A pro-Perry super PAC spent another $1.5 million.
And now in Iowa, Perry has been joined by about 500 volunteers, supporters and elected officials. The Perry campaign’s Iowa co-chairman Bob House addressed the group this morning.
“Today, the starting gun goes off,” House said. “The race begins in earnest. This is the first race. We’ve got a good runner with strong legs, and he’s going to go the distance in this marathon.”
Those volunteers have been making phone calls and walking neighborhoods. Tonight, they’ll fan out across the state, as campaign surrogates to speak on behalf of Perry at caucus meetings.
Perry spent the morning giving the group a pep talk.
“It is a powerful moment in America’s history,” he said. “And you are on the front lines.”
The caucus meetings begin tonight at 7. Before the night ends, we should know whether Perry will have momentum to head on to New Hampshire and South Carolina, or Iowa is where he’ll end his campaign.
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