James Richard Perry, popularly known as Rick Perry is an American politician. He is currently serving as the 14th US Secretary of Energy under Donald Trump administration. He previously served three full terms as the 47th Governor of Texas from 2000 to 2015.
What is Rick Perrey Famous For?
- Longest-serving Governor in Texas history.
- Secretary of Energy under Donald Trump administration.
Where was Rick Perry Born?
Rick Perry was born on 4 March 1950. His birth name is James Richard Perry. His birth place is in Haskell, Texas in the United States. He holds American nationality. He was born to a father, Joseph Ray Perry, and a mother Amelia June Holt Perry. He has an older sister. His ancestry is almost entirely English.
He attended and graduated from Paint Creek High School in 1968. He was in the Boy Scouts (BSA), where he had earned the rank of Eagle Scout. The BSA has honored him with the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award.
After high school, he attended Texas A&M University. He graduated from college with a Bachelor of Science degree in animal science in 1972. He interned as a door-to-door book salesman during several summers with Southwestern Advantage until his graduation from college.
Source: @krwg.org
Military Career
He was commissioned as an officer in the US Air Force in 1972.
He completed pilot training in February 1974.
His duties included two-month overseas rotations at RAF Mildenhall, England and Rhein-Main Air Base in Frankfurt, Germany.
His missions included a 1974 US State Department drought relief effort in Mali, Mauritania, and Chad.
His mission also included an earthquake relief in Guatemala in 1977.
He left the US Air Force with the rank of Captain in 1977.
He returned to Texas and started working with his father in the cotton farming business.
Source: @politico.com
Political Career
Texas Legislature
Perry was elected to the Texas House of Representatives as a Democrat from district 64 in 1984.
He served on the House Appropriations and Calendars committees during his three two-year terms in office.
He was part of the “Pit Bulls”, a group of Appropriations members who sat on the lower dais in the committee room (“the pit”). He was named one of the ten most effective members of the legislature.
He voted for a $5.7 billion tax increase proposed by Republican governor Bill Clements in 1987.
He announced in September 1989 that he was switching party to become a Republican.
Agriculture Commissioner
After becoming a Republican, he challenged Jim Hightower for Agriculture Commissioner in 1990.
He defeated Richard Mclver in the runoff election.
He then narrowly defeated Jim Hightower in November 1990 with 49% of the vote to Hightower’s 48% vote.
He was responsible for promoting the sale of Texas farm productions to other states and foreign nations as an Agriculture Commissioner.
He was reelected Agriculture Commissioner in 1994.
Lieutenant Governor
He ran for Lieutenant Governor in 1998.
He defeated Democrat John Sharp to become Texas’s first Republican lieutenant governor since Reconstruction.
He took office on 19 January 1999.
Source: @axios.com
Governor of Texas
George W. Bush resigned as the governor of Texas to become the President of the United States.
Perry then assumed the office of governor in December 2000.
He won the office in his own right in the 2002 gubernatorial election receiving 58% of the vote.
He was re-elected in the 2006 gubernatorial election.
He became the first Texas governor to be elected to three four-year terms.
He set a record for his use of the veto in the 2001 legislative session. He rejected 82 acts, more than any other governor in any single legislative session in the history since Reconstruction.
He formed the non-profit organization, the OneStar Foundation in 2003. The foundation was formed to connect non-profits with resources and expertise to accomplish their missions and to promote volunteerism.
As a governor, he was an opponent of federal health=care reform proposals and of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Travis County grand jury indicted Perry in August 2014. He was charged with abuse of official capacity for threatening to veto $7.5 million in funding for the Public Integrity Unit, a state public corruption prosecutors department. He was also charged with coercion of a public servant, for seeking the resignation of Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg, after she was convicted of drunk driving, and incarcerated.
He pleaded not guilty to both charges and was later cleared of all charged in 2016.
After serving three full terms as a governor, he decided not to run for re-election.
He retired in January 2015 with the 10th longest gubernatorial tenure in the US history, as well as the record of the longest-serving Texas Governor.
Source: @environmentleader.com
2012 and 2016 Presidential Campaign
He officially launched his presidential campaign in August 2011.
He later dropped out of the race after lagging poll numbers in South Carolina.
He officially launched his 2016 presidential race in June 2015.
Once again, he withdrew from the race in September 2015, following poor polling after the first debate.
He ultimately endorsed Donald Trump for the presidency.
Source: @theeagle.com
Secretary of Energy
US President Donald Trump nominated Perry as Secretary of Energy in December 2016.
He was the designated survivor during the 2019 State of the Union.
He was one of the named dragged into the Trump-Ukraine scandal. Trump claimed in a conference call with Congressional Republican leaders that he made a telephone call to Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky at Perry’s urging.
Others
He joined the board of directors of Energy Transfer Partners in 2015 and later resigned in December 2016.
He competed in the 23rd season of Dancing with the Stars. He partnered with professional dancer Emma Slater. They finished 12th on the show.
He has also appeared in minor roles for several films including Man of the House Deep in the Heart, and Hating Breitbart.
Books
He published his first book, On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts are Worth Fighting For in 2008.
He published his second book Fed Up! Our Fight to Save American from Washington in 2010.
Source: @dallasnews.com
Who is Rick Perry Married to?
Rick Perry is a married man. He is married to his childhood sweetheart Mary Anita Thigpen. The couple got married in 1982. The couple has two children, Griffin, and Sydney.
What is Rick Perry Net Worth?
Rick Perry has an estimated net worth of $2 million. He served most of his career in several government positions. Having served as the Governor of Texas, he later became the Secretary of Energy under Donald Trump administration.
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