A newly released poll shows Texas Republican Governor Rick Perry’s bid for the Republican presidential nomination may have hurt him at home.
The latest Dallas Morning News poll shows Mr. Perry’s approval rating after his failed presidential bid has fallen to 40 percent, a 10-point drop from a year ago and slightly less than President Obama’s 43 percent statewide approval rating, according to the poll.
More than half of the people who responded to a statewide survey say they do not want Mr. Perry, the longest-serving governor in Texas history, to run for another term in 2014.
Following the campaign, 45 percent of Texans said that Perry’s run for the presidency negatively affected Texas’ image – while 34 percent felt that the state’s image was unaffected, and 17 percent said that Perry made it better.
The poll comes as Mr. Perry announced earlier this month that he would exit the race for the Republican presidential nomination, citing weak polls numbers as a series of defeats in the state of Iowa and New Hampshire. The Texas Republican’s base of support quickly evaporated in mid-2011 after a series of debate flops and repeated gaffes on the campaign trail.
The poll was conducted Jan. 21 to 24 for The Dallas Morning News, the Austin American Statesman, the San Antonio Express-News, the Houston Chronicle and the Fort Worth Star Telegram. The random telephone survey of 806 Texans, including 669 registered voters, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.