Texas governor and soon-to-be presidential candidate Rick Perry was Al Gores Texas state chair in 1988. Gore shared the views of his fellow southern centrists he opposed the federal funding of abortion, supported a moment of silence in schools for prayer, approved funding of the Nicaraguan contras and was against the ban on interstate handgun sales. It was a platform a conservative West Texas Democrat like state representative Perry could stand on, and he signed up to chair the Senators Texas campaign
A decade later, Perry said the 1988 presidential primary election helped push him to his party switch. In the fall of 1988, he voted for Bush over his partys nominee, Dukakis. I came to my senses, he told the Austin American-Statesman in 1998
[In 2009] Perry was asked about their diverged paths at a Dallas builders meeting. Did you get religion? Did he get religion? What has happened since then? a member of the audience asked. I certainly got religion, Perry said, according to the Dallas Morning News. I think hes gone to hell.
It was Karl Rove who convinced Perry to switch parties in 1989, and Perry has described himself and George W. Bush as philosophical soulmates.