Governor Rick Perry of Texas is said to be significantly closer to launching a run for the Republican nomination for president to be able to take on pro-abortion President Barack Obama.

Perry had been leading against launching a bid for the GOP nomination, but suddenly appeared to be springing towards one in the aftermath of several top political staff and aides to Speaker Newt Gingrich deciding to abandon his presidential campaign yesterday. Some of the aides are former Perry staffers or supporters who are said to be returning to Texas to help the governor prepare plans for a presidential campaign.

According to Matt Lewis of the Daily Caller, a conservative publication, “Two separate and reliable sources in Texas tell me serious preparations are being made for Governor Rick Perry, 61, to seek the Republican nomination for president.

Jim DeMint's supporters are hoping the South Carolina senator will change his mind and decide to enter the 2012 GOP presidential race.

DeMint's spokesman, Matt Hoskins, said last week that the South Carolina lawmaker was seeking to be respectful of supporters when he told a media outlet he was discussing a potential 2012 presidential bid with his wife.

The tea party favorite played a key role in raising cash for other candidates, including Florida Senator Marco Rubio in 2010. But in a recent interview with The Hill, DeMint reiterates he has no plans to run, saying it "would take an extraordinary set of circumstances" for him to do so...

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, a pro-life stalwart, makes his bid for the Republican nomination for president official today. The Catholic former elected official is making the announcement from the Somerset County Courthouse in Somerset, Pennsylvania.

This location is significant because it is near where Senator Santorum’s grandfather settled in America after leaving fascist Italy to work in the Pennsylvania coal mines until he was 72 years old. He chose to come to America for the freedom our nation offered him, Santorum’s campaign says.

The senator led off the announcement day with an appearance on ABC’s Good Morning America in an exclusive interview to discuss his joining the race for the Republican nomination to take on pro-abortion President Barack Obama...

The Tea Party will support whoever wins the GOP presidential nomination - - even if that person is former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. That's the affirmative word from Tea Party Express chair Amy Kremer.

Kremer told Fox News on Saturday, "whoever the Republican nominee is will have to have the support of the Tea Party movement, the entire Tea Party movement."

Kremer went on to say the Tea Party is "completely neutral," adding that it "just wants to see the cream rise to the top... If Romney is the nominee I believe that we want to defeat Barack Obama"...

MANCHESTER, N.H. – Mitt Romney is opening his first formal day as a 2012 Republican presidential candidate by pitching himself as the one to heal the economy and issuing a direct challenge to the man he wants to replace: "Barack Obama has failed America," he says.

In excerpts released ahead of his formal kick-off speech Thursday, Romney homes in on the economic woes that are frustrating voters: a lack of jobs, persistent foreclosures and runaway spending in Washington.

It's a pitch tailored to the conservatives who hold great sway in picking the GOP's presidential nominee in Iowa and South Carolina — and the independents who are the largest politic bloc in New Hampshire. And it is as much a thesis on his viability as it is an indictment of Obama's leadership...

With a number of key GOP candidates dropping out of the race for president, an author and former member of the Reagan administration believes Texas Governor Rick Perry is considering a 2012 GOP run.

Having taken office in December 2000 when his predecessor, George W. Bush resigned to become president, Rick Perry is the longest-serving governor of Texas. And following months of resisting calls to join the race, Perry told reporters last Friday, "I'm going to think about it."

Tom Pauken, who served on Ronald Reagan's White House staff and later became chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, is surprised by the possibility...

A new poll in Iowa following the departures of Mike Huckabee and Donald Trump as potential Republican presidential candidates shows former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney leading in Iowa among Republican voters.

The Public Policy Polling institute survey has businessman Herman Cain and former governor Sarah Palin tied for second at 15 percent, with Romney leading the race at 21 percent when Republican and independents who lean Republican are measured.

Newt Gingrich is 4th with 12%, Michele Bachmann 5th with 11%, Tim Pawlenty 6th with 10%, and Ron Paul 7th with 8%. All other candidates were shown at 0 or 1%...

(CNSNews.com) - Sen. Jim DeMint, a conservative Republican from South Carolina, told The Hill newspaper he's considering calls for him to enter the 2012 presidential race.

“It’s humbling, and out of respect, my wife and I have talked about it,” the newspaper quoted DeMint as saying. “Out of respect for the people who have asked us to think about this, that’s what we’re going to do. I don’t want to imply that I’m changing in mind, but I want to consider what all these folks are doing.”

DeMint, a proponent of balanced budgets, recently described Democrats as "the party of big government, big spending, big debt and bankrupting the American economy”...

In the first presidential election since the tea party’s emergence, Republican candidates are drifting rightward on a range of issues, even though more centrist stands might play well in the 2012 general election.

On energy, taxes, health care and other topics, the top candidates hold positions that are more conservative than those they espoused a few years ago.

The shifts reflect the evolving views of conservative voters, who will play a major role in choosing the Republican nominee. In that sense, the candidates’ repositioning seems savvy or even essential...

In some circles, the Republican 2012 field has been written off faster than last year's business expenses.

Newt Gingrich lacks discipline. Mitt Romney's health care law was too similar to President Obama's. Nobody knows who Tim Pawlenty is.

All are common swipes against the budding crop of presidential hopefuls jockeying for the chance to take on Obama next year. But election analysts say these candidates still have a solid shot at competing, if they can just work out the kinks in their campaign...