Former Texas governor Perry to announce 2016 run in June

AUSTIN, Texas, May 16 (UPI) -- It appears that former Texas Gov. Rick Perry has decided to run for president again -- and he is expected to make it official in three weeks, his wife indicated Friday.

On her Twitter account Friday, Anita Perry indicated that the three-term governor is excited about his potential to lead the country and asked supporters to attend an event in Dallas on June 4.

In an article written by political reporter Jake Miller Friday, CBS News said it confirmed that Perry will announce his 2016 bid.

Perry has previously said he will make a final decision in May or June on whether he will seek the 2016 Republican nomination, and has since traveled to several early voting states like Iowa and New Hampshire.

Perry ran for the GOP nomination in 2012 with a late campaign that was spurred by polling information that indicated he might be the top challenger to Mitt Romney. If he enters the race next month, he will get a much bigger jump on caucus and primary voting and more time to raise funds.

The Republican field is still wide open, as many of the expected GOP heavyweights have not yet formally declared a run. Conservative Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee headline the list of declared candidates.

Several others, however, have formed exploratory committees -- including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, former New York Gov. George Pataki, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and former Sen. Rick Santorum. The party's most recent nominee, Romney, might also run again.

Walker and Santorum attended a rally in South Carolina last weekend, where they won rousing applause from GOP supporters by heavily attacking President Barack Obama's foreign policies. In Virginia the same day, Bush delivered a commencement address and courted evangelical voters at conservative Liberty University -- the same place where Cruz launched his bid earlier this year.

Perry, who became the first Texas governor elected three times, might be even more of an underdog this time around, the Dallas Morning News reported Friday, as he is presently polling in single digits. But perhaps his biggest obstacle is a grand jury indictment that charges him with abuse of power for a veto he issued as governor.

Perry has acknowledged that he wasn't fully prepared for his 2012 run, when he was still recovering from back surgery and didn't anticipate the rigors and questions a presidential campaign brings.

One fact he is trying to take advantage of is that he is the only Republican candidate, except Graham, who has served in the U.S. military.

Perry introduced some innovative new criminal justice policies in Texas and presided over one of the healthiest economies in the country, which at one point led the nation in job creation, the Morning News report said. He will continue to pitch himself to the GOP as a conservative on fiscal, defense and security matters.

After his presumed announcement June 4, Perry is expected to resume campaigning in Iowa on a three-day tour of several small towns there.