Rick Perry Hits Campaign Trail with Gianforte

Former Texas governor and two-time Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry touched down at Kalispell’s Glacier Jet Center on Tuesday afternoon to hit the campaign trail with Greg Gianforte, the GOP’s nominee for one of the most-watched governor’s races in the country.

Wearing a khaki button-down shirt emblazoned with the historic slogan “Come And Take It” beneath a depiction of a cannon and a single star, an historic symbol of the Texas Revolution, Perry said his support of Gianforte boils down to his support of states’ rights and his full-throated heralding of the 10th Amendment, which says the powers not given to the federal government by the Constitution are reserved for the states.

A titan in the Lone Star State’s political world, Perry was the longest-serving governor in Texas history with a tenure of 14 years and 30 days. He ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for president in 2012 and 2016, bitterly clashing with eventual GOP nominee Donald Trump, and calling the billionaire’s candidacy a “cancer on conservatism” before endorsing him.

And while Perry maintains that national races are of high importance, he noted that governor’s races provide state leaders with their best avenue around federal policies they don’t agree with.

“Governors matter,” Perry said. “I believe that Donald Trump has the strongest vision to put America on the right path, but governors are where the rubber meets the road. They understand that states are laboratories of innovation.”

According to Gianforte, the Treasure State is in dire need of some innovative solutions.

Since announcing his bid to challenge incumbent Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock, Gianforte has repeatedly pounded the drum that Montana suffers from low wages, a glut of economy-stifling regulations, federal overreach, and policies that put residents in danger of terrorist violence.

Gianforte praised Perry’s economic performance during his long tenure as governor and his record of building a bigger workforce, adding more than 1 million employees to the payrolls of Texas businesses than there were at the beginning of 2008, before the financial crisis.

“The secret is that they made it easier for businesses to grow,” Gianforte said. “Nobody has a better record than governor Perry, and if I can learn lessons from him than I would happily adopt those plans and policies for Montana. But first we need to peel back regulations and lower the tax burden so we can start putting money back into the pockets of Montanans.”

“Good governors steal ideas from one another,” Perry added.

Bullock has the advantage of incumbency and of the race being held during a presidential election, one of 12 governor’s races this year, and he has attacked Gianforte’s tax plan that gives breaks to large, out-of-state corporations.

Gianforte, a political newcomer who sold his software company RightNow Technologies to Oracle in 2011 for $1.8 billion, has worked to pick apart Bullock’s record as governor, accusing him of not pushing aggressively enough against federal regulations and of mismanaging the state’s budget.

Bullock and Gianforte have also frequently sparred over access to public lands on the campaign trail, with the Democrat highlighting a legal dispute between Gianforte and the state about easement boundaries, and the Republican’s camp criticizing Bullock appointees for considering the closure of a popular access point on Fort Peck Lake.

Taking a shot at Perry’s support of the Republican candidate, Bullock was critical of public land management in Texas, pointing to the fact that most hunting is limited to private land or through outfitters and guides.

Perry, a nationally known figure who is popular with Montana Republicans, is not the first prominent member of the GOP to campaign for candidates in Montana.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott visited Montana this summer to support Gianforte, while House Speaker Paul Ryan is scheduled to stop in Billings this weekend to campaign for U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke, Montana’s lone House representative from Whitefish.

Montana Republican Party Chairman Jeff Essmann acknowledged that the race between Gianforte and Bullock would be a “nail biter” and that the final stretch leading up to the Nov. 8 election is a critical time.

On Wednesday, Perry and Gianforte headed to Missoula and on to Great Falls, where the two planned to go trapshooting. They’ll end their tour in Billings.