Rick Perry

Texas Gov. Rick Perry may be out of the presidential race,  but his campaign committee has some cash left in the bank -- and he wants to put it to use. RickPerry.org, the entity that collected money to fund Perry's presidential bid, has asked the Federal Election Commission to green light a proposed transformation from a presidential campaign committtee to a political action committee, possibly a “super PAC.” It's a plan that appears to...

Rick Perry made no mention of Mitt Romney, the current delegate leader in the GOP nomination fight, in his remarks to CPAC attendees Thursday afternoon. Nor did he express further support for the man he endorsed for president after ending his own bid -- Newt Gingrich. But the Texas governor did give voice to the conservative activists who have yet to coalesce around a single candidate by imploring like-minded Republicans not to "settle" in the presidential race. "We do the American people no great service if we replace the current embodiment of big government with a lukewarm version of the same," Perry said.

A veritable who's who of wealthy Texans poured money into a “super PAC” backing Texas Gov. Rick Perry before his presidential bid collapsed this month, along with nearly a dozen corporations, new campaign finance filings show. In all, Make Us Great Again, an independent political organization launched by former Perry chief of staff Mike Toomey and G. Brint Ryan, a longtime donor to Perry's gubernatorial campaigns, raised nearly $5.5 million last year. The super PAC spent $4.8 million, mostly in television advertising backing Perry's candidacy.

For more than a decade Texas Gov. Rick Perry has forcefully governed his state through intimidation and influence, wooing wealthy donors, trouncing election opponents and making appointments that packed the capital with loyalists. But after dropping out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday, Perry returned home with a new air of political vulnerability. "The fear is gone. The aura of invincibility that surrounds him has been punctured," said Jake Silverstein, editor of Texas Monthly, which voted Perry its "Bum Steer of the Year" on account of numerous campaign flubs, most memorably his "oops" moment during a Michigan debate when he couldn't remember the third federal department he wanted to eliminate.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry is frequently compared to George W. Bush, a fellow Republican Texas governor who went on to serve two undistinguished terms as president of the United States. But that's a grave insult to Bush. Perry, who dropped out of the GOP presidential race Thursday, is far more divisive, inarticulate, insular and insensitive than Bush ever was, which is why his departure from the national political scene is good news for everybody but late-night comedians. But it's better for one man than anybody else: Newt Gingrich.

Rick Perry's communications chief Ray Sullivan says the Texas governor remains open to the possibility of another run for president in 2016 and has learned many "valuable" lessons about the intensity, pace and scrutiny that candidates must endure. The subject came up -- unprompted -- in a conversation with reporters in the lobby of the North Charleston hotel where Perry had just announced  he was leaving the presidential race. Sullivan was asked whether the governor planned to run for re-election in Texas.

In endorsing Newt Gingrich's presidential bid, Rick Perry may have thrown some votes over to the former House Speaker in the upcoming South Carolina primary. But it's no guarantee that the Texas governor's financial backers will follow. While many of Perry's evangelical Christian donors in Texas could find Gingrich appealing, fundraisers from the establishment wing of the GOP are more likely to gravitate to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Indeed, two top Perry fundraisers - Mississippi-based political strategist Henry Barbour and Dirk Van Dongen, a lobbyist who co-chaired the governor's fundraising efforts in Washington--signed on to the Romney camp Thursday.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry abruptly quit the Republican presidential race Thursday and threw his support behind Newt Gingrich, a move aimed at slowing Mitt Romney's drive toward the GOP nomination. "I have come to the conclusion that there is no viable path to victory for my candidacy in 2012," said Perry, his expression taut as he read from a prepared statement before an audience consisting of reporters who rushed to scene for the surprise announcement. Acknowledging past differences with Gingrich, Perry nevertheless described the former House speaker as "a conservative visionary who can transform our country.

Newt Gingrich effusively praised Rick Perry, his one-time rival for the GOP presidential nomination who dropped out earlier Thursday and endorsed the former House speaker. In Perry's announcement, “he talked about the mission. I think this is really important. People can run or not run, people might end up being president or not being president, but there is a mission as a citizen that's really an important part of being an American,” Gingrich said. “And I really was grateful that Rick Perry emphasized that his mission is not going to change, that he is still committed to helping his country every way he can.” He said he spoke with Perry on Thursday morning, and asked the Texas governor to lead an effort to draft states' rights legislation that Gingrich would try to pass within 90 of being inaugurated.

When news broke Thursday morning that Texas Gov. Rick Perry was dropping out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination, longtime Texas progressive pundit Jim Hightower was positively jubilant. "He embarrassed us enough," said Hightower, who preceded Perry as Texas agriculture commissioner. "When he got started, I warned people not to underestimate Perry -- he's a lot stupider than he looks. " That the governor dropped out before Saturday's primary in South Carolina was no surprise to those watching back in the Lone Star state, Hightower said.