All this happened back when Gov. Perry was a Democrat and backing Al Gore, right?
No. Perry was a West Texas conservative Democrat one of the "Pit Bulls" who fought spending. He crossed over to the GOP in 1989 after they'd begun building a party in Texas. In 1998 Rick Perry became the first Republican Lt. Gov. of Texas since Reconstruction. In 2010 he became the longest serving Texas governor and brought with him a GOP super majority. He's served 2 times as Chairman of the Republican Governors Association and broke fundraising records.