Five Things You Might Not Know About Gov. Rick Perry - East Idaho News
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Five Things You Might Not Know About Gov. Rick Perry

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Getty 070514 rickperry?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1404578007498Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call via Getty Images(AUSTIN, Texas) — Rick Perry will not be running for another term as Texas governor, but hasn’t ruled out another bid for the White House following his last run.

His previous campaign is perhaps most memorable for the governor’s now infamous “Oops” moment during one of the Republican presidential debates in Michigan.

Here are five things you might not know about the governor of the Lone Star State.

1) Perry — who is a fifth generation Texan — was born in 1950. He grew up in Paint Creek. He didn’t have indoor plumbing the first five years of his life, earned the rank of Eagle Scout as a boy in the Boy Scouts, and was a quarterback for his high school football team. He graduated from Texas A&M University (he notes on his website that he is the first graduate of the university to “occupy the Governor’s Mansion”). In college, he was a “yell leader” and graduated in 1972.

2) Perry is married to Anita Thigpen Perry, who worked for many years as a nurse. The couple has two children named Griffin and Sydney.

3) Perry spent several years as a Democrat and even supported former Vice President Al Gore during his 1988 bid for president. He joined the GOP in 1989.

4) Perry is his state’s 47th and longest-serving governor, replacing George W. Bush in 2000 as Bush was preparing to enter the White House.

5) The governor, like some other famous pols, has acting experience. He played himself in the 2005 Tommy Lee Jones film Man of the House.



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