Texas Republican Governor Rick Perry won a resounding victory against Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison yesterday in their primary race, winning an absolute majority by campaigning against Washington and the federal government, including showing rhetorical support for secession last April.
Despite the backing of Hutchison by former Vice President Dick Cheney and former President George H. W. Bush, Perry was able to come across as a rebel and an outsider, an amazing feat for a Governor who has been in office for ten years, and is the longest serving Governor in Texas history.
Despite the cynicism and ridicule often visited on Perry, he is obviously a factor in the future of the Republican party nationally, and already, there are rumors that he might seek the White House in 2012.
I am sure that Kay Bailey Hutchison, who was a very legitimate conservative in a more measured way with a very respectable Senate record, would be ready to advise all of the various GOP possibilities for the presidential nomination not to write off the possible threat that Perry represents.
This is an establishment figure who, even with the threat of Debra Medina, the Tea Party candidate, who won about 20 percent of the vote, was able to win 52 percent of the vote, so he can claim to have support from disaffected voters.
Perry may seem to be a candidate who will bomb early in a Presidential race, but again, don’t take him as someone to ignore, because he could very well be a major surprise in the 2012 presidential campaign. One ignores Rick Perry at their own risk!