Perry announces 2nd bid for president

Associated Press

ADDISON, Texas

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry opened his second bid for the Republican presidential nomination Thursday, pledging to “end an era of failed leadership” and hoping this campaign will go better than his last one.

The longest-serving governor in Texas history when he left office in January, Perry made his announcement inside a steamy hangar at an airfield outside Dallas, in the company of fellow veterans and a hulking cargo plane like the one he flew for the Air Force.

Perry vowed to help the country rise above its slow economic recovery. During Perry’s last seven years in office, Texas created 1.5 million new jobs.

“I have been tested,” Perry said. “I have led the most successful state in America.”

This time, Perry is a decided underdog who has been visiting early-voting states for months, hoping to convince voters he deserves another chance.

In 2012, he announced late, surged in the polls but wilted amid a series of gaffes.

Perry was a ferocious fundraiser before, but his coffers could be hurt this time by two felony indictments he’s facing in Austin.