Perry was campaigning and buying ads in Iowa for months before Trump got in. He was getting absolutely no traction when Trump wasn’t around. Michele Bachmann redux.
The first significant exposure he got nationally he used to trash Trump in some of the harshest words used by any of the Trump trashers. He lost what little support he had at the time. The same for Lindsey Graham. Those two were the first to try the trash Trump tactic and both lost support.
Most pay little attention to early Iowa activities.