Perry to announce White House bid Saturday: media

Texas Governor Rick Perry will formally announce
that he is a candidate for the White House in 2012
© AFP/Getty Images/File Brandon Thibodeaux

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Texas Governor Rick Perry will formally announce this weekend that he is a candidate for the White House in 2012, joining a packed Republican field vying to take on President Barack Obama, US media said Thursday.

Perry, whom polls show running a close second behind frontrunner and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, is a staunch social conservative who has overseen strong Texas job growth since taking office in 2000.

CNN and Fox News Channel said Perry, who succeeded George W. Bush in the Texas governor’s mansion, would declare his candidacy on Saturday after months of flirting with a presidential bid.

A spokesman, Mark Miner, refused to confirm or deny the reports, saying only that “the governor will make his intentions very clear on Saturday.”

A Fox News Television survey of Republican primary voters taken last week found 21 percent planned to vote for Romney while 13 percent preferred Perry.

“I’m very calm in my heart that this is what I’m supposed to be doing,” Perry told Time magazine in an interview published Thursday, saying a recent discussion with his wife “made me realize that I couldn’t sit on the sidelines if my country’s future truly is at stake.”