First we heard that Perry stopped paying his South Carolina staffers. Then we heard this top guy in Iowa quit. Now it looks like his Iowa campaign is down to its last two legs…literally:
USA TODAY – Presidential candidate Rick Perry now has just one paid staffer left on his Iowa team but plans to continue seeking Iowans’ votes for the GOP caucuses, aides told The Des Moines Register on Monday morning.
“We are continuing our Iowa campaign, with several September dates planned and other dates under consideration,” said Perry’s Iowa strategist Bob Haus, who remains on board as an unpaid advisory role, as he did for the former Texas governor in the 2012 election cycle.
It was reported in mid-August that Perry, who lags at the bottom of polling in the GOP race in Iowa, was short on cash and was no longer paying campaign staffers. Predictions quickly cropped up that Perry may be the first of 17 Republican presidential candidates to exit the 2016 Iowa campaign.
Jamie Johnson, who was Perry’s senior director organizing conservatives in the early states, will now lead Perry’s efforts in Iowa.
Karen Fesler, Perry’s Iowa co-chair, has moved back to the team for presidential candidate Rick Santorum, the candidate she supported in the 2012 cycle.
Going into the 2016 cycle I thought Perry would do pretty well. I never thought he’d fizzle this fast. But it looks like America just doesn’t have the stomach for him. And if he’s waiting for Trump to implode, I expect he’ll be waiting a good while.