(CNN) - Texas Gov. Rick Perry will be joined by his family in South Carolina this weekend for a major speech in which he will strongly signal his intention to run for president, two GOP sources told CNN.
Perry is not expected to make a formal campaign announcement on Saturday in Charleston, but people familiar with the planning say that Perry's speech to the RedState Gathering, a convention of conservative activists, will erase any doubt about his presidential ambitions.
During his visit to the key early primary state, Perry will also meet privately with dozens of South Carolina Republican leaders. Perry will then travel to New Hampshire where he will meet with party activists there.
The Texas governor has been meeting with donors and talking to activists in key caucus and primary states for weeks as he lays groundwork for a potential campaign.
A formal declaration of candidacy is expected sometime before Labor Day, but Perry's advisers have not revealed a specific announcement date.
From CNN Politics
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We are going to be in deep trouble if this man is elected president! I live in Texas and have witnessed first hand the damage this man has made to my state. His only concern is his bank account.
Perry/Palin will be the dream team for 2012.
once he is officially a candidate, i hope people see how he has ruined Texas...education and health are at the bottom...our schools are closing, our roads are broken...oh, but the corporations are happy because they don't pay taxes!!
In the footsteps of Sarah (I'm thinking about running) Palin.
Poor Perry, not man enough to announce in Texas. Who can blame him, polling around 3% even among Texas Republicans. But let's all be honest here, he is "running" to be Vice-President hoping to bring Fundamentalist Christians to the GOP Tent. I find this funny since Perry has never played the Jesus card before, being a friend of Dorothy and all.
I hope he does run and Texas can continue its fine tradition of getting rid of our worst governors by sending them to the White House.
I would love to have him out of the Governor's mansion in Texas BUT I certainly don't want him in the White House – at least the White House does have term limits. It may be the only way to get him out of the Governor's mansion.
I wonder how long Mr. Perry will give us non-Christians, to leave the country? Based on the opinions of his chief supporters, his candidacy is terrifying to contemplate.
Lord help us....saw his ad that's running in Iowa....nicely skewed facts.....what an idiot..and YES I live in Texas.
Won't be getting my vote. He is a racist.
GO AWAY! WE DON'T NEED ANOTHER FREAKING BIBLE-THUMPING EXTREME RIGHT-WINGER RUNNING FOR POTUS. The republican party is failing its majority by supporting this kind of moron. Go back to Texas Rick,...with all the other steers and queers.
His "intentions"? Will this be in relation to his expected run for POTUS or with respect to what he plans to do about the ridiculous deficit problem he has caused in TX?
WHO IS THIS KENTUCKY FRIIED TEXAN?!?!?!?!!
LIKE WE REALLY NEED ANOTHER TEX-LONG HORN RUNNING THINGS FOR HIS BIG OIL BUDDIES!!!
IMAGINE..IMAGINE...."IF" PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA HAD DARED TO MENTION THE WROD "SECESSION" ?!?1?!?!?!!?!?!?!
IMAGINE!?!?!?!?!
ALL he did was tell some Joe "SCHMOE" Wanna-be Plumber that he would see to it that he took part in the "American Dream".,,,and BAM!!! "SOCIALIST"!!! "SOCIALIST"!!!! Yet this White guy can Step off and be in the "running" after more than JUST merely uttering "SECESSION"...!?!?!
ya gotta LOVE the United states...
My late grandmother, a staunch Texas Democrat, called Rick Perry a "greasy pea-patch Romeo" when HE was a Democrat.
Not suprised at all...
Go ahead, stir up the jesus freaks...we'll end up in worse shape then ever imagined.
Really now, do you still believe in the easter bunny too?
Sheez Louise, just what America needs, another Dubya! Not.
Pray for water you sinners in Texas. Perry you do not stand a chance of beans to win with the big boys. The Morons will be the sheeeeiiiiit out of you. Let's Mormans or Texas Christians, I am picking the Mormans, will beat Perry!
Guess Perry's secret trip to "somewhere in the Vail, CO" area, to attend a Koch Bros "secret" Retreat, paid off.
Also secret is the "guest list". He didn't tell anybody where he was going. Supposedly the taxpayers did not
pay for the "private" airplane he took, but we do pay his salary, his housing rent ($10,000/mo), and he is paid to take
care of business here, like the firing of teachers due to his $28B deficit, our going-even-higher property taxes,
which he claims he lowered. Haven't found anybody yet whose property taxes were lowered, but then I'm no
millionaire. Perry for President? Only if it gets him out of Austin, and keeps him out of Washinton. That's what
I call a great "two-fer"!
the tea party puppet. all the Republicans like NY Rep King yelling about Muslims and theocracies, so they're going to run a right-wing Christian who has no problem violating the Constitution daily, whether it be the separation of Church and State or the firing of the members of the commission examining the illegal execution of a US citizen. anyone interested in this candidacy, or any other tea party lunacy, should watch the film The Dead Zone, based on the Stephen King novel. Rick Perry and the Tea Party are cut from the same mold asGreg Stillson.
Oh goodie, a governor from Texas, this should end well.
Thanks, but no thanks. Gov. Succession can stay in Texas.
Texas needs to secure its borders! Their village idiots keep escaping!
Just wondering.....how did things turn out the last time we had a governor from Texas running this country?
If I remember correctly, the guy was an idiot that started two wars and left destroying a surplus to nothing but giant deficits that will ultimately lead to programs for the middle class and poor being cut.
You non-rich Republican supporters are too dumb to know you're putting the nails on your own coffin.
Is that when Jesus tells him America needs him or not?
Yea! Go Perry! Because that last Texas governor who served as President did such a GREAT job. NOT.