Texas Governor Rick Perry has arrived in Iowa on his first campaign swing through the state as a Republican presidential candidate.
“Everybody’s got their own issues that matter,” Perry said Sunday night, “but at the end of the day, getting America working again is what the bulk of the people really care about.”
Perry spoke last night in Waterloo at a Black Hawk County G.O.P. fundraiser. Michele Bachmann, the victor of Saturday’s Iowa Republican Party Straw Poll, also spoke, but for twice as long.
“I’m extremely grateful for everything that you have done for me, thankful that you all came out to the Straw Poll. Thank you for the confident that you have put into me,” Bachmann said last night in Waterloo. “And I want you to know that I will be here in Iowa, continually meeting more and more with the voters, making the case, listening to your voice and then working to win Iowa at the Caucus.”
Bachmann calls Saturday’s Straw Poll “step number one on a long journey” and she vows to “earn every Iowan’s vote.” Steve Sukup, a businessman who ran for governor of Iowa in 2002, envisions a Perry/Bachmann ticket for Republicans in 2012.
“He’s got the right background with jobs,” Sukup says. “And then Michele’s got tremendous enthusiasm.” John Sabbath of Cedar Falls suggests Perry is a relative unknown in the state.
“We know some,” he said, “but not a lot.”