karl rove flipped him.
According to a 2003 Rove profile published in Texas Monthly magazine, Rove and Weeks “persuaded Perry, an obscure Democratic legislator from Haskell who had co-chaired Al Gore’s 1988 Democratic presidential primary campaign in Texas, to switch parties for the election. West Texas was swinging Republican anyway, and Perry, who was discouraged by his failure to advance in the House leadership and thinking of becoming a lobbyist, had nothing to lose.”
The rest is dramatic Republican history: Perry, whose advisers included Rove, upset Hightower and has now held statewide office for nearly 20 years. Rove went on to help Bush to the White House.
22 years ago Phil Gramm was bringing conservative democrats across to the right, as he himself had done. Gramm stood next to Rick Perry when he made that announcement:
....."Rumors that Mr. Perry would defect to the Republican Party — and run against Jim Hightower, the populist Democratic agriculture commissioner — picked up steam by late 1989. On Sept. 29, Mr. Perry made it official at a Capitol news conference. At his side were Fred Meyer, chairman of the Texas Republican Party, and Senator Phil Gramm, a former Democrat, who was aggressively courting would-be converts.
Mr. Perry’s timing, now legendary, could not have been better. He was one of only two Republicans elected to nonjudicial statewide office in 1990. Eight years later, Republicans swept every one of them.
“Perry has been a risk taker,” said Mr. Hance, the party switcher who became the chancellor of Texas Tech University. “And if you look at Perry’s timing in every race, he’s been the golden guy.” Taking a Look at the Governor, Back When He Was a Democrat