June 4, 2015

Rick Perry Is Running for President. Read These 8 Stories About Him Now.

Can the embattled former governor put his gaffe-riddled 2012 bid behind him and win the nomination?

<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/eschipul/5047775028/in/photolist-8G4aDW-an7mV2-6voQ7g-ox82bi-pn35mK-b18ShM-aMtecT-9qLejf-ez2gio-9jZdPE-6xC126-8Qi1rK-p4rbqB-b7Zdjx-btAfzh-aSSy6V-ce1zFY-bpCdYg-aRqpmD-q8eEc8-ppGRvp-8Qi3ve-a4agHd-beo68Z-benHex-8Qm7kA-8N3kSq-aiyHBV-cCkW7m-ax9xe1-njNJR5-cPig4S-68z5Qb-acXPcd-aoagJH-7XoM7t-dn2pz8-8Qi2YV-aRpEeP-aSYr7e-i3yjLF-akimcs-8Qi2kD-bZaBrh-pmNtPL-ehsYcs-cPErqY-q2LvvN-aprWTJ-8Qi28R">Ed Schipul</a>/Flickr

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Oops, he did it again: Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry is officially launching his second campaign for president today. He’s expected to announce his bid flanked by combat veterans in the Dallas suburb of Addison. His entry to the race swells the growing GOP field to 10 official candidates.

Perry served for three terms as governor of the Lone Star State before stepping down earlier this year. He last ran for president in 2012, when he briefly was considered the GOP’s strongest conservative alternative to Mitt Romney until a few high-profile gaffes convinced many Republicans he wasn’t up to the job. Perry enters a far more crowded field this cycle, and faces stiff competition from fellow Texan Sen. Ted Cruz, Dr. Ben Carson,  former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum to win over the social conservatives who have supported him in the past.

Perry also carries with him substantial baggage from his 12 years as governor of Texas—most recently, he was indicted by a Texas grand jury on felony abuse of power charges. Check out the best of Mother Jones‘ coverage of Rick Perry:

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WE'LL BE BLUNT.

We have a considerable $390,000 gap in our online fundraising budget that we have to close by June 30. There is no wiggle room, we've already cut everything we can, and we urgently need more readers to pitch in—especially from this specific blurb you're reading right now.

We'll also be quite transparent and level-headed with you about this.

In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

You're here for reporting like that, not fundraising, but one cannot exist without the other, and it's vitally important that we hit our intimidating $390,000 number in online donations by June 30.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. It's going to be a nail-biter, and we really need to see donations from this specific ask coming in strong if we're going to get there.

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