The Donald Trump transition team made it official on Tuesday that Texas’ longest serving governor, Rick Perry, will be tapped as the new head of the Energy Department for the president-elect’s first term starting on Jan. 20.
Perry infamously forgot that the name of the Energy Department as one he’d do away with if elected to the White House out of Austin’s governor’s mansion. That was back in 2012, though, and as Joe Biden pointed out recently four years is a lifetime in politics.
Now Perry — who sits on the board of directors for Energy Transfer Partners of #noDAPL fame — is scheduled to take control of the department, which oversees the nation’s stockpile of nuclear weapons and cleans up after military endeavors while employing energy researchers.
The former Texas governor had been critical of Trump to begin with, calling his campaign a “carnival act,” but ultimately hopped aboard the Trump Train along with many other conservatives hoping for change.
Here are five things to know about Rick Perry:
He knows a thing or two about dancing
https://youtube.com/watch?v=tmy1FYqkkZg
Perry, who is 66, most recently made headlines in entertainment news. This season he was featured prominently on a reality TV’s “Dancing with the Stars,” where his ballet de cour alongside dancing pro Emma Slater was only outshone by fellow Texan Vanilla Ice.
Of DWTS, he told People, “this is a first class operation, and I’m just privileged to have been a part of it,” he added. “Not quite as long as I wanted to be a part of it, but you know, it is what it is and I had a wonderful time.”
He also knows a thing or two about ranching
As a young man, Gov. Perry joined the Air Forcer where he piloted C-130 tactical aircrafts until 1977, when he returned home to small town West Texas and worked as a cotton farmer with his father.
According to a profile by NPR, Perry planted cotton and wheat, combating long spells of dry weather and driving tractors under the hot Texas sun. It was a “boring” life unsuited to a “natural born leader,” though, and after 13 years of the grueling work Perry set his sights on Austin where he would challenge (and defeat) Texas Ag Commissioner Jim Hightower.
He spent over 30 years in Texas politics
Wikimedia Commons
Fourteen years into his Texas political career, Perry became the lieutenant governor under Gov. George W. Bush. The pair were complimentary in both style and substance — at least to the untrained public eye.
Behind the scenes, the two political powerhouses began a feud following Bush’s refusal to appoint Perry’s brother-in-law to a prominent political position in Austin. Nonetheless, following Bush’s election to the White House, Perry would assume the role of governor. He set a Lone Star State record as the longest-serving governor, a position he held for 16 years.
He’s drawn the ire of progressives for years
Not only as governor did Mr. Perry sign into law restrictions on abortion access, but he came out in favor of a same-sex marriage ban back in 2005 and has imposed his Christian views on lawmaking for years.
In 2011, he caught the attention of the Tea Party, when he began leading public prayer rallies. His list of conservative accomplishments also includes balancing the Texas state budget and cutting taxes, incentivizing oil production and steering a successful Texas economy through the Great Recession, and overseeing a 19 percent growth in the state’s GDP during that time. A tenth of the nation’s undocumented workers also found their residence in Texas under his watch.
His reasons for wanting to cut funding for the Energy Department are dubious
Flickr/Gage Skidmore
Shortly after his “Oops” moment, Mr. Perry began wearing a pair of black-rimmed glasses in what looked like a political effort to appear more knowledgable.
And at the end of his presidential campaign, the Texas governor often pointed back to his “conservative principles” and anti-Washington roots, recalling Texas Independence war legend Sam Houston as inspiration for his “retreat” from the spotlight and reportedly saying, “I’m sure glad I had my boots on because I sure stepped in it out there.”
His plan for eliminating the Energy Department never really surfaced. However, in 2014, he stated many areas he believes the federal government must get out of and leave to free enterprise. “[Washington needs to] Get out of the health care business, get out of the education business, stop hammering industries, let the sleeping giant of American enterprise create prosperity again.”
Make America great again indeed, Mr. Perry.