WEST DES MOINES—Texas Governor Rick Perry said Tuesday he would reassess his White House bid after suffering a heavy defeat in Iowa’s first vote of the 2012 US presidential elections.
Republican presidential candidate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry speaks during a campaign stop in Des Moines, Iowa, Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2012. CHRIS CARLSON/AP PHOTO
“With the voters’ decision tonight in Iowa, I have decided to return to Texas, assess the results of tonight’s caucus, determine whether there is a path forward for myself in this race,” Perry told supporters.
With some 97 percent of the votes counted, the conservative Perry had only harnessed about 10 percent support of the vote in the Iowa Republican ballot to pick the party’s nominee to challenge President Barack Obama in November.
“With a little prayer and reflection, I’m going to decide the best path forward,” Perry added.
Perry was left trailing in fifth place in the first-in-the-nation Iowa battle, which was going down to the wire with a dead heat between the frontrunners former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and former senator Rick Santorum.
But the final two places in the line-up were left to Iowa-born Representative Michele Bachmann, and former China ambassador Jon Huntsman, who had not campaigned in the state at all.
In her concession speech, Bachmann left open what she intended to do after polling a disappointing five percent in the caucuses.
“If anyone is confused… I believe that I am that true conservative who can and who will defeat Barack Obama in 2012,” she said, adding that “who knows, maybe even another Michele in the White House.”