Texas Pro-Life Governor Rick Perry Still Leads Pro-Abortion Candidate Bill White
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
August 24, 2010
Austin, TX (LifeNews.com) — Governor Rick Perry, who is pro-life, is still leading in his race for re-election in the Lone Star State against pro-abortion opponent Bill White. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters in Texas shows neither candidate gaining ground but Perry holding his lead.
The new poll has Perry earning 49% support, while Democrat Bill White, a former mayor of Houston, receives 41% of the vote.
Three percent prefer some other candidate, and seven percent are undecided.
Perry is favored by 72% of Republicans, while 84% of Democrats support White. Among voters not affiliated with either political party, the pro-life governor leads by a 59% to 33% margin.
Fifty-five percent (55%) of voters in the state approve of the job Perry is doing as governor while 45 percent disapprove.
"Last month, Perry held a nearly identical 50% to 41% advantage over White. In match-ups since February, Perry’s support has ranged from 47% to 51%. White has earned 38% to 44% of the vote in that same period," Rasmussen noted. "White faces a tough race in a state that trends conservative Republican, especially given the national electoral mood."
Seventy-six percent of Texas voters consider Perry a conservative in a state that shares pro-life conservative values. Forty-two percent view White as a liberal, while another 29% describe him as a moderate.
"Despite the perceived differences in ideology, 51% of voters in the state describe Perry’s political views as mainstream, and 52% say the same of White’s views. Thirty-three percent (33%) brand Perry’s views as extreme, and 29% think White’s are extreme," Rasmussen noted.
In May, Perry secured the support of a statewide pro-life group while the Planned Parenthood abortion business jumped in White’s corner.
Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas endorsed White, saying he "has demonstrated a strong commitment" to abortion.
The organization runs the largest chain of abortion facilities in Texas, including their recently opened 78,000-square-foot, six-story "megafacility" in Houston.
But Governor Perry has been endorsed by the Texas Alliance for Life PAC, which says he "has passionately supported laws protecting unborn babies and their mothers."
Joe Pojman, executive director of Texas Alliance for Life, told LifeNews.com, "Voters need to know that Bill White would bring Planned Parenthood with him into the Texas Capitol if he were elected governor in November."
"Texas needs a leader who is unrelentingly pro-life," Pojman said. "Unlike his opponent, Governor Perry has never given an inch to the life-threatening precepts of Roe v. Wade, whether verbally or by his actions as an elected official."
Perry supported the Woman’s Right to Know Act (2003), the Prenatal Protection Act (2003), the parental consent law (2005), and funding for alternatives to abortions (2005, 2007, 2009).
In addition, Gov. Perry has also strongly endorsed public funding for adult stem cell research. He has opposed embryonic stem cell research, which has developed no treatments or cures and requires the destruction of human embryos.
Adult stem cells have been used to successfully treat more than 20,000 Americans and more than 70 different conditions or diseases.
In April, Perry joined former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin to raise money for an organization that places pro-life commercials on television.
Perry exposed Obama’s pro-abortion record and focused on him overturning the Mexico City Policy and forcing Americans to pay for funding groups that promote and perform abortions overseas.
“America is in the business of exporting abortion. I’m not happy about that,” Perry said and, saying of unborn children, “Too bad we can’t protect them from the federal government."
Related web sites:
Texas Alliance for Life – https://www.texasallianceforlife.org
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