Texas Gov. Rick Perry has key appeal for GOP primary voters anxious to win back the White House in 2012: he creates jobs and wins elections.
"With the 2012 election set to be about jobs, no other Republican candidate can boast what Perry can."
From Townhall Magazine's EXCLUSIVE October feature "Never Lost a Fight":
"[Running a national campaign is] certainly different," Perry chief strategist Dave Carney said in an exclusive interview with Townhall."There will be a lot of things we never encountered that we will certainly come up against." Carney is a veteran of a past presidential race, having run Bob Dole's 1996 New Hampshire campaign for president, and served in the George H.W. Bush White House.
"We did a lot of research and field experiments using empirical research on our tactics to see if they are successful or no," Carney said.
It will also help that Perry's campaign team has been around him for over a decade.
"You get comfortable working together, you understand [him], you know what [his] likes and dislikes are," Carney said. Aside from Carney, the Perry leadership team includes pollster Mike Baselice and media consultant David Weeks. In fact, it's Weeks whom Perry credits for getting him to switch parties back in 1989.
One reason Perry has won elections--in fact, he has yet to lose one--is that Carney understands how campaigns must be open to change.
"Our theory," Carney said, "is if someone has a better idea, we steal it. The point of the campaign is to win, not relive the great hoorah. We adapt to putting resources, time and effort into those tactics that are successful in reaching voters and getting them to be more supportive and to turn out."
The ability to adapt revolutionized the Perry 2010 campaign and will be extremely useful in 2012.
Read more of Dwayne Horner's feature in the October issue of Townhall Magazine, including:
- -- more from Perry's chief strategist Dave Carney and Perry's 2010 political director
- -- the Perry brand: jobs and standing up to the federal government
- -- the Perry controversies that make conservatives wary: how will they play out in a nationwide election?
Order Townhall Magazine today to get the full report in the October issue.