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Rick Perry expected to announce plans to drop out of presidential race; what'snext?
Six million dollars was a lot of money to pay for fifth place.
But following a less-than-stellar showing at the Iowa caucus early this month — so poor that most assumed it would spell the end of Rick Perry's campaign for the GOP presidential nomination — the Texas governor temporarily reevaluated his campaign and decided to move on to South Carolina, where the electorate is much more conservative. He was photographed jogging the morning after Iowa in his quest to resume his presidential run.
As Texas Monthly editor-in-chief Jake Silverstein observed, there must not have been enough neon green laces in S.C. to sustain the run, because Perry has scheduled an 10 a.m. press conference Thursday to announce that he is bowing out of the race.
Perry's planned announcement comes just after Jon Huntsman's own declaration earlier this week that he, too, was dropping out of the GOP race and would endorse Mitt Romney for the nomination.
The combination of current national polls has Romney leading the pack with a projected 35.2 percent of the vote, followed by Newt Gingrich with 29.4 percent, Ron Paul with 15.1 percent, Rick Santorum with 13.3 percent, and finally Perry with 5.2 percent. Romney is also leading in South Carolina, although Gingrich is rising in the polls as Saturday's election approaches.
The next big question for Perry is whether he'll endorse one of his former rivals for the GOP nomination — many outlets report that the Texas Governor will back Newt Gingrich.
