. Perry assumed the office of governor on December 21, 2000, following the resignation of
George W. Bush—who was preparing to become
president of the United States. Perry is one of five governors of Texas to have served three terms, the others being
Allan Shivers,
Price Daniel,
John Connally and later
Greg Abbott. He is the longest-serving governor in Texas history. He had served for 14 years by the time he left office, making him the second longest-serving U.S. governor at the time, behind
Terry Branstad of Iowa.
Fiscal policies In his presidential campaign, Perry highlighted the economic success Texas achieved under his governorship. The efficacy of Perry's economic policies has been questioned by some sources, including
Ezra Klein. A proclaimed proponent of fiscal conservatism, Perry often campaigned on job growth and tax issues, such as his opposition to creating a state
income tax. In 2002, Perry refused to promise not to raise taxes as governor, and in the following years did propose or approve various tax and debt increases. In 2009, Perry signed
Grover Norquist's pledge to "oppose and veto any and all efforts to increase taxes". Texas began borrowing money in 2003 to pay for roads and was projected to owe $17.3 billion by the end of 2012, increasing total state debt from $13.4 billion in 2001 to $37.8 billion in 2011. The state's public finance authority sold $2 billion in bonds for unemployment benefits, and it was authorized to sell $1.5 billion more if necessary. Texas federal borrowing topped $1.6 billion in October 2010, before the bond sales. In 2003, Perry signed legislation that created the
Texas Enterprise Fund, which has since given $435 million in grants to businesses.
The New York Times reported that many of the companies receiving grants, or their chief executives, have made contributions to Perry's campaigns or to the Republican Governors Association. (Perry became chairman of the group in 2008 and again in 2011.) Perry was criticized for supporting corporate tax breaks and other incentives, while the state government was experiencing budget deficits.
Healthcare in 2010 As governor, Perry was an opponent of federal health-care reform proposals and of the
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, describing the latter as "socialism on American soil". His focus in Texas was on
tort reform, signing a bill in 2003 that restricted non-economic damages in
medical malpractice judgments. Perry touted this approach in his presidential campaign, although independent analysts have concluded that it has failed to increase the supply of physicians or limit health-care costs in Texas. During Perry's governorship, Texas rose from second to first among states with the highest proportion of uninsured residents at 26%, and had the lowest level of access to
prenatal care in the U.S. Perry and the state legislature cut
Medicaid spending. The
Los Angeles Times wrote that under Perry, "working Texans increasingly have been priced out of private healthcare while the state's safety net has withered." In February 2007, Perry issued an
executive order mandating that Texas girls receive the
HPV vaccine, which protects against some strains of the
human papilloma virus, a contributing factor to some forms of
cervical cancer. Following the move, news outlets reported various apparent financial connections between Perry and the vaccine's manufacturer,
Merck. Merck's
political action committee has contributed $28,500 since 2001 to Perry's campaigns. Perry later reversed his position, calling the vaccine mandate a "mistake". In May 2007, the Texas Legislature passed a bill undoing the order; Perry did not veto the bill, saying the veto would have been overruled, but blamed lawmakers who supported the bill for the deaths of future Texan cervical cancer victims. On July 1, 2011, Perry both had adult
stem cell surgery in Houston and started "laying the groundwork" for the commercialization of the adult stem cell industry in Texas.
Religion in Maryland In 2006, Perry said he believed in the
inerrancy of the Bible and that those who do not accept
Jesus as their Savior will go to hell. A couple of days later, he clarified, "I don't know that there's any human being that has the ability to interpret what God and his final decision-making is going to be." In his 2008 book
On My Honor, Perry expressed his views on the
Establishment Clause and the
Free Exercise Clause of the U.S. Constitution. "Let's be clear: I don't believe government, which taxes people regardless of their faith, should espouse a specific faith. I also don't think we should allow a small minority of
atheists to sanitize our civil dialogue of religious references." In June 2011, Perry proclaimed August 6 as a Day of Prayer and
Fasting, inviting other governors to join him in a prayer meeting hosted by the
American Family Association in Houston. The event was criticized as going beyond prayer and fasting to include launching Perry's presidential campaign. Perry has called himself "a firm believer in
intelligent design as a matter of faith and intellect" and has expressed support for its teaching alongside
evolution in Texas schools but has also said that "educators and local school officials, not the governor, should determine science curriculum".
Education In 2005, Perry said he would not "approve an education budget that shortchanges teacher salary increases, textbooks, education technology, and education reforms. And I cannot let $2 billion sit in some bank account when it can go directly to the classroom". Following a second rejection of Perry's bill, Perry asked
John Sharp to head a task force charged with preparing a bipartisan education plan, which was subsequently adopted. In 2001, Perry expressed his pride in the enactment of the statute extending in-state tuition to
undocumented immigrants who meet Texas' residency requirements. It also required the undocumented students to pledge to apply for permanent residency or citizenship if this became a possibility for them. In September 2014, Gov. Perry stated during a debate his continuous support for the program.
LGBT rights in National Harbor, Maryland Perry is a firm opponent of LGBT rights and as both governor of Texas and secretary of energy became controversial for his homophobic comments and anti-LGBT positions. In 2002, Perry described the Texas same-sex
anti-sodomy law as "appropriate". The following year, the
U.S. Supreme Court struck down the statute in
Lawrence v. Texas, determining that it violated the
Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. In his 2010 book, Perry referenced the
Lawrence decision, writing "Texans have a different view of the world than do the nine oligarchs in robes." In 2011, Perry admitted that he did not know about the
Lawrence decision; when told that the Supreme Court case had struck down Texas's anti-sodomy law, Perry said: "I'm not taking the
bar exam[...] I don't know what a lot of legal cases[...] My position on traditional marriage is clear[...] I don't need a federal law case to explain it to me." In 2011, after
New York legalized same-sex marriage, Perry said it was their right to do so under the principle of
states' rights in the
Tenth Amendment. A spokesman later reiterated Perry's support for a
federal constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, saying that position was not inconsistent, since an amendment would require ratification by three-fourths of the states. After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in
Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015 that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by the Constitution, Perry condemned the decision, saying: "I'm a firm believer in traditional marriage, and I also believe the 10th Amendment leaves it to each state to decide this issue." In his first book,
On My Honor, published in 2008, Perry compared
homosexuality to
alcoholism, writing that he is "no expert on the 'nature versus nurture' debate" but gays should simply choose abstinence. Perry's comments created immense controversy and drew ire from several LGBT rights groups. During the 2012 presidential campaign, he criticized the repeal of the "
don't ask, don't tell" policy for the U.S. military. In a 2011 campaign ad, he stated: "there's something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military" and later defended the ad, saying he was "very comfortable" with it. Perry said using foreign aid as a policy tool against foreign countries that violate the human rights of homosexuals was "not in America's interests" and was part of a "war on traditional American values". Perry, an
Eagle Scout, called on the
Boy Scouts in 2013 to continue their ban on homosexuality.
Crime Perry's campaigns for lieutenant governor and governor focused on a tough stance on crime. He has supported
block grants for crime programs. Jeff L. Blackburn, chief counsel of the
Innocence Project of Texas, said of Perry that "He has done more good than any other governor we've ever had [...] unless, of course, it involves the death penalty. On the
death penalty, Rick Perry has a profound mental block." In 2001, Perry signed the James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act, which strengthened penalties for crimes motivated by a person's race, color, disability, religion, national origin or ancestry, age, gender or sexual preference. The law was opposed by previous governor George Bush, who insisted that "all crimes are hate crimes." In 2007, Perry signed a law ending automatic arrest for
cannabis possession.
Death penalty Perry supports the
death penalty. In June 2001, he vetoed a ban on the
execution of
intellectually disabled inmates. In 2011, during a televised debate for presidential candidates, he said he had "never struggled" with the question of the possible innocence of any of the 234 inmates executed to date while he was governor. Cases in which Perry has been criticized for his lack of intervention include those of
Cameron Todd Willingham and Mexican nationals
José Medellín and
Humberto Leal Garcia. Perry commuted the death sentence of
Kenneth Foster, who was convicted of murder despite evidence that he was only present at the scene of the crime. Foster was convicted under a Texas law that makes co-conspirators liable in certain cases of homicide. In this case, it tied Foster to the triggerman. Perry raised doubts about the law and urged the legislature to re-examine the issue. "I believe the right and just decision is to commute Foster's sentence from the death penalty to life imprisonment," Perry said. Perry also refused to grant a stay of execution in 2004 in the case of
Cameron Todd Willingham, even though an investigation by the
Texas Forensic Science Commission determined parts of the original investigation may not have looked at all of the evidence correctly. Perry said in 2009 that "Willingham was a monster. He was a guy who murdered his three children, who tried to beat his wife into an abortion so that he wouldn't have those kids. Person after person has stood up and testified to facts of this case that quite frankly you all aren't covering" and later replaced the chairman and other members of the Science Commission prior to a meeting on the case. The replacements were believed to potentially related to the
election slated for the following year. Infrastructure In 2002, Perry proposed the
Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC), a $175 billion transportation network that would include a 4,000-mile network of highways, rail, and utility lines and would be funded by private investors. Plans for the project were dropped in 2009 in favor of more incremental road projects. Opposition to the project, also called the "
NAFTA super highway" garnered opposition from rural Texans, labor and environmentalists, the project became a major issue in the
2006 gubernatorial campaign.
Gun ownership Perry has held a
Concealed Carry License (CCL) and has signed a number of bills that increased CCL access. Perry touted the border security efforts as he campaigned for re-election. During Perry's governorship, he launched additional operations and persuaded the Texas legislature to devote more taxpayers' resources to border security. According to a 2022 investigative report by the Texas Tribune, "The way the governors and their administrations have tracked success has fluctuated over the years, offering little clarity into whether the state is closer to securing the border today than it was nearly 20 years ago. Neither the governor's office nor the DPS, the main agency leading border security efforts, can provide a full breakdown of the state-led operations since 2005, their duration, their cost to taxpayers and their accomplishments." During a large surge in
illegal immigration through the U.S. southern border in the summer of 2014, Perry criticized U.S. President
Barack Obama, saying the surge was "a humanitarian crisis that he has the ability to stop". On July 21, 2014, Perry announced he would send in 1,000
National Guard troops to secure the border. Although illegal immigration levels declined over 70% after Perry deployed the National Guard,
PolitiFact.com rated his claim that the decline resulted from the surge as "mostly false". In 2016,
The Texas Tribune wrote that "Perry has long been a critic of building a wall or fence along the border." After Trump won the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, Perry fully embraced Trump's proposed border wall.
Veto controversy and exoneration On August 15, 2014, Perry was
indicted by a Travis County
grand jury. The first charge of the
indictment was abuse of official capacity, which has since been ruled unconstitutional, Perry pleaded not guilty to both charges. Perry's supporters called the charges political and partisan, and several Democratic commentators, including
David Axelrod, believed charges were weak. In February 2016, Perry was cleared of all charges. The
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that courts could not limit
veto power and that prosecuting Perry over his action violates "the
separation of powers provision of the Texas Constitution" and infringed on Perry's
First Amendment right to
freedom of speech.
Retirement as governor By the end of his third full term, he had served more than 14 consecutive years in office. A University of Texas at Austin–
Texas Tribune poll released in June 2013, showed Perry leading potential primary challenger Attorney General
Greg Abbott by double digits, 45–19%. In February, the same poll had Perry leading by a 3-to-1 margin (49–17%) of 32 points over Abbott. However, Perry decided not to run for re-election to a fourth full term, announcing in front of family and supporters at the
Holt Cat headquarters in
San Antonio on July 8, 2013, that he would retire instead. Perry retired with the 10th longest gubernatorial tenure in United States history at the end of his term on January 20, 2015, at days as well as the record of the longest serving Texas governor. ==2012 presidential campaign==