Here's a look at the life of former US Secretary of Energy and former Texas Governor Rick Perry.
Birthdate: March 4, 1950
Place of birth: Paint Creek (Texas)
Birth name: James Richard Perry
Father: Joseph Ray Perry, a farmer
Mother: Amelia (Holt) Perry
Marriage: Anita (Thigpen) Perry (November 6, 1982-present)
Children: Sydney and Griffin
Education: Texas A&M University, B.A., 1972
Military service: US Air Force, 1972-1977, Captain
Religion: Methodist
He's an Eagle Scout.
He met his wife, Anita, in elementary school.
He has dedicated years to supporting psychedelic-assisted therapies.
He is the longest-serving governor in Texas history.
1972-1977 – Serves on US Air Force transport aircraft.
1977 – He returns to Texas to live and work on his father's farm.
1978 – He forms JR Perry Farms with his father.
1985-1991 – Member of the Texas House of Representatives as a Democrat from District 64.
1989 – Switch to the Republican Party.
1991-1999 – Commissioner of the Texas Department of Agriculture.
1999-2000 – Lieutenant Governor of Texas.
December 21, 2000 – Perry is sworn in as governor after George W. Bush resigns to become president of the United States.
November 5, 2002 – Perry is elected to a four-year term.
November 7, 2006 – He is re-elected governor.
2008 – Perry's book “On My Honor: Why Boy Scouts' American Values are Worth Fighting for” is published.
November 2, 2010 – Perry is elected to a third term.
August 13, 2011 – He declares his candidacy for president during a speech in South Carolina.
January 19, 2012 – He suspends his presidential campaign and endorses Newt Gingrich.
July 8, 2013 – He announces that he will not run for re-election as governor of Texas in 2014.
August 15, 2014 – A grand jury charges Perry with coercion of a public servant and abuse of official capacity. She allegedly threatened to veto funding for a statewide public integrity unit led by Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg unless she resigned following her arrest for drunk driving. She remained in office and then he vetoed the funding.
August 19, 2014 – Perry voluntarily appears in Travis County Court to be fingerprinted and have his mugshot taken. He pleads not guilty to charges of coercion of a public servant and abuse of official capacity. The next day, he makes the first of six campaign-style stops in New Hampshire.
November 18, 2014 – A Texas state district judge rejects a defense motion to dismiss two felony charges against Perry.
January 15, 2015 – He delivers his farewell speech as governor.
June 4, 2015 – He announces that he is running for president at a rally in Addison, Texas.
July 24, 2015 – A Texas appeals court dismisses one of two criminal charges against Perry. The court agrees with Perry's legal team's argument that a Texas law regarding “coercion of a public servant” violates Perry's First Amendment free speech rights. The court allows a charge related to abuse of power to move forward.
September 11, 2015 – He suspends his campaign for the presidency.
January 25, 2016 – Perry endorses Ted Cruz.
February 24, 2016 – The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals drops charges against Perry alleging he abused his power while in office.
August 30, 2016 – Perry is revealed as one of the members of the upcoming 23rd season of ABC's reality show “Dancing with the Stars.”
September 27, 2016 – He is eliminated from “Dancing With The Stars.”
November 22, 2016 – Return to “Dancing With The Stars” for the season finale. Perry dances with Vanilla Ice during a live performance of “Ice Ice Baby.”
December 13, 2016 – President-elect Donald Trump announces that he has selected Perry as his nominee for Secretary of Energy.
January 19, 2017 – Perry says he regrets recommending the elimination of the Department of Energy during a 2012 presidential debate.
March 2, 2017 – Perry is confirmed as Secretary of Energy by a vote of 62 to 37 in the Senate.
July 26, 2017 – Perry's office acknowledges that he was the target of a prank call on July 19. During the 20-minute call from Russian pranksters, real names Vladimir Krasnov and Aleksey Stolyarov, respectively, one poses as Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman.
February 5, 2019 – He is named the designated survivor for Trump's second State of the Union address. As the only Cabinet member who will remain outside the House chamber during the speech in the event of a disaster, Perry will remain at an undisclosed location.
October 10, 2019 – House Democrats issue a subpoena to Perry for documents related to the Trump administration's contacts with Ukraine as part of the House's ongoing impeachment inquiry.
October 17, 2019 – Perry says he plans to resign in a video posted to YouTube.
November 20, 2019 – EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland testifies that he, along with Ukraine Special Envoy Kurt Volker and Perry, worked with Giuliani in Ukraine under Trump's “express order” and against his better judgment. Sondland also tells lawmakers that he had discussed the investigation in a July 19 email sent to several senior U.S. officials, including Perry. In response, the Department of Energy releases a statement denying Sondland's claims, saying he “misrepresented both Secretary Perry's interaction with Rudy Giuliani and the instructions the Secretary received from President Trump.”
December 1, 2019 – Perry resigns as US Secretary of Energy.
January 1, 2020 – Perry is named a director of the general partner that controls Energy Transfer LP, an oil pipeline company.
February 17, 2021 – In a blog post on House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's website, Perry is quoted as saying “partly rhetorically” that “Texans would be without power for more than three days to keep the federal government out of business. Millions of Texans were left without power as the state experienced a massive outage brought on by a historic freeze and a power grid that, unlike the other 47 contiguous states, is separate from the rest of the country and not under federal regulatory oversight, making prevents Texas from being able to borrow power from other states.
December 17, 2021 – Investigators on the Jan. 6 House committee believe a Nov. 4 text pushing a “strategy” to undermine the presidential election came from Perry, three sources familiar with the investigation told CNN. First introduced in the House of Representatives on December 14, the text was included in some 6,000 documents delivered to the committee by former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Perry denies being the author.
