Rick Perry

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Richard "Rick" Perry (born March 4, 1950) is an American politician who served as the 14th United States Secretary of Energy from 2017 to 2019.

He served as Texas's 47th governor from 2000 to 2015, having been elected Lieutenant Governor of Texas in 1998 and later taking over the governorship from George W. Bush. In 2012 and 2016, Perry failed to be nominated for President of the United States.

President Donald Trump nominated him as Secretary of Energy by the United States Senate in a 62–37 election on March 2, 2017.

Perry told President Trump on October 17, 2019 that he planned to resign as Energy Secretary at the end of the year.

He resigned in December 1, 2019.

Early life

Perry, a fifth-generation Texan, was born in Haskell, Texas, and raised in Paint Creek, Texas, the son of dryland cotton farmers Joseph Ray Perry (1925-2017) and Amelia June Holt Perry (born 1929). He has one older sister. Perry's ancestry is almost entirely English, dating back to the Thirteen Colonies. His family has been living in Texas since the Texas Revolution was born.

His father, a Democrat, was a long-serving Haskell County commissioner and school board member for many years. Perry said that his political interest began in November 1961, when his father took him to the funeral of US Representative Sam Rayburn.

Perry was a member of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) and was awarded the rank of Eagle Scout. Perry has been named Distinguished Eagle Scout Award by the BSA.

Perry attended Texas A&M University, where he was a member of the Corps of Cadets and the Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity. He was named senior class social secretary, a member and redpot in Aggie Bonfire, and one of A&M's five "yell leaders." He received a Bachelor of Science degree in animal science in 1972.

"I was definitely a bit of a free spirit, not particularly well prepared for life outside of a military dictatorship," he said in 1989. I would not have survived at Texas Tech or the University of Texas. I would have entered fraternity and lasted about a year."

Perry interned with Southwestern Advantage for several summers as a door-to-door book salesman in the early 1970s. Perry said in 2010 that "working for Dortch Oldham [then president of the Southwestern family of companies] was one of the most memorable formative experiences of my life." "There is nothing that puts your commitment to a cause more than closing a few doors in your face." "Mr. Oldham taught legions of young people to talk quickly, clearly, and with passion, a lesson that has served me well in my life since then," he said.

Perry was sent as an officer in the United States Air Force and completed pilot training in February 1974. At Dyess Air Force Base, in Abilene, Texas, he was later assigned as a Lockheed C-130 Hercules pilot with the 772nd Tactical Airlift Squadron. Perry's responsibilities included two-month rotations at RAF Mildenhall, England, and Rhein-Main Air Base, both located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. His humanitarian efforts in Mali, Mauritania and Chad, began in 1974, as well as earthquake relief in Guatemala. He left the Air Force in 1977 at the rank of captain, returned to Texas, and with his father, he began farming cotton.

Personal life

Perry married Mary Anita Thigpen, his childhood sweetheart who had not known him since elementary school. They have two adult children, Griffin and Sydney. Anita obtained a Bachelor's degree in nursing from West Texas State University. Anita Thigpen Perry Endowment at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, which focuses on diet, cardiovascular disease, health promotion, and early childhood development, has been spearheaded by her. She was instrumental in the creation and organization of the Texas Conference for Women.

Perry appeared in a few films, including Man of the House, Deep in the Heart, and Hating Breitbart.

The American Cowboy Culture Association, based in Lubbock, gave Perry its "Top Cowboy of Texas" award in 2001. Perry cited the honor for his father, Ray Perry, and a former neighbor in Haskell County, the late Watt R. Matthews (born 1899), who said they learned "not only about Texas and [its] history, but also about the virtues we learned growing up in a rural setting."

Perry is a member of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution and was honoured with the Gold Good Citizenship Award.

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Early political career

Perry was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1984 as a Democrat from district 64, which included his home county of Haskell. During his three-year tenure as President, he served on the House Appropriations and Calendars Committees. Lena Guerrero, a hard-line Democrat who endorsed Perry's reelection effort in 2006, befriended him.

Perry was one of the "Pit Bulls," a group of Appropriations members who sat on the lower dais during the 1980s who pushed for lower state budgets. At one time, The Dallas Morning News named him one of the ten most influential members of the legislature at one point.

Perry voted for a $5.7 billion tax increase under Republican Governor Bill Clements' proposal in 1987. Perry was a supporter of Al Gore in the 1988 Democratic presidential primaries and volunteered in Texas for Gore's campaign. Perry declared on September 29, 1989, that he had changed parties and now became a Republican. On a guest appearance on Fox show Hannity, he partially credits Reagan for the reason he became a Republican but also stated that he changed political parties earlier in his life than Reagan.

Perry fought Jim Hightower, the incumbent Democratic Agriculture Commissioner, in 1990 as a newly minted Republican. Karl Rove, Perry's campaign manager, was Rove.

Perry received 276,558 votes (47%), with Richard McIver garnering 176,976 votes (30%) and Gene L. Duke, who placed third, receiving 132,497 votes (23%). Perry and McIver were set on April 10, 1990, with Perry falling short of the required 50% to win outright. He was victorious in the run-off, winning 96,649 votes (69%) to McIver's 43,921 votes (31%).

During 1990, Hightower's office was embroiled in an FBI probe into bribes and bribery. In 1993, three aides were found guilty of using public funds for political education, but Hightower himself was not accused of involvement in the wrongdoings. Perry barely defeated Hightower in November 1990, getting 1,864,463 votes (48%) to Hightower's 1,820,145 votes (48%).

Rove raised $3 million to raise Perry's profile "while tarnishing the name of Jim Hightower," resulting in Perry's name becoming a "household name in Texas" and Hightower's name becoming synonymous with dishonesty.

Perry, the Texas farm produce trader, was responsible for promoting the export of Texas farm produce to other states and international nations, as well as supervising the calibration of weights and measures, such as gasoline pumps and grocery store scales.

Perry, the Texas agriculture commissioner, expressed support for the drive to reform the country's healthcare system in April 1993, describing it as "most commendable." The healthcare initiative, which was first announced in September, was ultimately unsuccessful due to Republican congressional resistance. Perry said in 2005, after being questioned by a potential opponent in the Republican governor primary, he expressed his support only in order to force Clinton to pay more attention to rural health.

Perry was reelected Agriculture Commissioner by a large margin in 1994, receiving 2,546,287 votes (62 percent) to Democrat Marvin Gregory's 1,479,692 (36 percent). Clyde L. Garland, a libertarian, gained the remaining 85,836 votes (2 percent). Gregory, a chicken farmer from Sulphur Springs, Texas, served with Perry in the early nineties but became a Democrat before running against Perry in 1994.

Perry ran for lieutenant governor in 1998. Perry lost a significant battle with his former top political strategist Karl Rove, which ignited the long-awaited rivalry between the Bush and Perry camps. Perry's 1,858,837 votes (50.04 percent) to the 1,790,106 (48.19 percent) cast for Democrat John Sharp. Perry became the state's first Republican lieutenant governor since Reconstruction after Reconstruction, taking office on January 19, 1999.

Career outside politics

Perry revealed in February 2015 that he would join Energy Transfer Partners, which owns and operates one of the country's largest energy asset portfolios, and Sunoco Partners, another major Dallas energy company. Perry resigned from both companies' boards on December 31, 2016, according to SEC filings. Perry joined LE GP, the Energy Transfer's general partner, in early January 2020. Perry returned to MCNA Dental's board of directors as chief strategy officer and vice chairman in February 2020.

Perry was announced on August 30, 2016 as one of the celebrities in Dancing with the Stars' season 23. Emma Slater, a professional dancer, was partnered with him. On the third week of competition, Perry and Slater were eliminated and placed in 12th place out of 13 competitors.

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