Text of Governor Perry's Speech from the 2008 Texas Republican Convention

(Note: the governor often deviates from text)

Outside of giving me the gift of life, I’d say the greatest thing God ever did for me was to allow Anita to be my wife. Anita, your loving support over the years has made all the difference. Thank you.

Chairman Benkiser, Vice Chairman Armstrong, my fellow officeholders, delegates and alternates, builders of the strongest Republican state in America: I am proud to stand before you as your governor.

I hope that everybody got a good look at the opening picture on that video. In fact…guys, can we take a look at that picture again? I want you all to take a good long look at this photo. Study the detail. Take note of its pristine condition. See the grandeur, and hear me when I say this: you WILL see it again.

I will not allow the destructive act of some deranged individual or group to destroy something that Texans hold so dear. We will rebuild. We will restore. We will renew this Texas treasure.

The tragic events of this past Sunday morning are a reminder that we live in a fallen world and that the threats to our values, our way of life, our very freedom are all too real…and that we must always persist in doing good.

To me, the Governor’s Mansion has always been a recurring reminder of our state’s remarkable advance from rough, unsettled territory to a shining beacon of hope to the entire world. It has been the home to every Texas governor since 1856. It is a place where good people have pondered grand things for a great state. It has been a symbol of our state’s position and prestige. And it will be again.

The Governor’s Mansion has also been a home where family stories abound. Like Gov. Hogg putting nails in the banister to stop his children from sliding down. Or Gov. Sayers welcoming President McKinley for the Mansion’s first presidential visit. And where Gov. Houston welcomed his eighth child into the world.

For Anita and I, it is the place where we watched our children grow from teenagers into young adults. Watching that video, it really hit me that my children are grown up. Sometimes it just hits you that your babies aren’t babies anymore. It seems like just yesterday I was bouncing Sydney on my knee and teaching Griffin to tie a double-half-hitch knot for his Boy Scout merit badge. When people ask me why I’m conservative, they need look no further than those two children that God blessed us with. Like you, I’m a conservative because I wanted my children to grow up in a state that respects life and defends a parent’s right to protect their children…to play a role in their minor children’s major decisions. So we worked hard to pass parental notification legislation, an outright ban on third-trimester abortions, and a parental consent law. Like you, I’m a conservative because I want my children to live in a state that celebrates, honors, and nurtures life, and respects the will of the people, not like California and its left-wing Supreme Court. So together we pressed for a defense-of-marriage amendment to our state constitution that passed with 76% of the vote, so that activist judges can’t override the will of the people like they did in California.

Like you, I’m a conservative because I want my children to live in a state where its leadership makes smart choices for future prosperity, applying conservative fiscal values like cutting taxes, reducing frivolous lawsuits and pursuing a sensible regulatory climate as we have.

The results speak for themselves.

Texas is the nation’s leading exporter and has become the home to more Fortune 500 headquarters than any other state. We’ve been identified as one of the top places in the country to start or run a biotechnology company. And CEOs across America point to Texas as the best state to do business. The Texas economy is attracting companies and jobs the way a porchlight draws junebugs.

These companies coming to Texas are bringing with them investment, innovation and, most importantly, jobs for Texans. Just last year, small businesses in Texas hired more than 150,000 people, meaning we now have more than 5.3 million people working for Texas small business owners.

Since 2003, our state has created more than 1.2 million net new jobs. That many people would fill up Reliant Stadium 17 times. Of all the jobs created in the United States over the past year, more than half of them were created right here in Texas.

No matter how you cut it, that’s great economic news, and none of it happened by accident.

Fact is, the seeds for today’s economic success were sown in some very tough decisions made by conservatives like you: the Republican majority and Republican leadership you put in power back in 2003. We started that year with a $10 billion deficit. Some of the loudest voices in the media and across the legislative aisle told us to raise taxes or the state would fall down around our ears.

Well, we didn’t listen to them because we knew better. Some states with similar challenges tried to TAX their way out a hole. In Texas, we decided to GROW our way out of the budget deficit. In 2003, while we were cutting general revenue spending for the first time since World War Two, California issued $35 billion in debt, and New York RAISED taxes by $2.9 billion.

Fast-forward five years and California is looking at taking on even more debt to cover a deficit in the neighborhood of $15 billion, and New York is finally considering spending cuts, including $1 billion in healthcare spending.

While other states are heading for the lifeboats, our budget SURPLUS in Texas is on the north side of $10 billion…and growing. Because we made tough choices back then, we have a new challenge now: figuring out how to send a lot of that money back to its rightful owners: Texas taxpayers.

Whether we do it through additional property tax relief, a reduction in business taxes, a sales tax cut, or a direct rebate to taxpayers, the 2009 Texas Legislature must figure out a way to give surplus dollars back to hardworking Texans.

And the best way to cut spending is for legislators to enact a bona fide spending cap that’s indexed to our state’s growth. Now, I know that asking government to cap spending when the state is awash in money is like asking a football team to back away from the all-you-can-eat buffet…but it has to be done. If we don’t enact a real spending cap when times are good, when will we?

We also need to ratchet up the accountability factor by pressing for complete transparency in budgets and spending. Government doesn’t spend public money…government spends your money. And if you are going to write the check you ought to be able to look at every item on the receipt.

Speaking of accountability, we also need to improve the accountability of our election process. The votes of people who participate legally in our elections should never be canceled out by those who would participate illegally. You need a photo ID to cash a check…you need a photo ID to get a marriage license…and if you were are the Democrat Convention last week you would have had to present your ID to get your credentials. Why is it the Democrats think voter identification is necessary for their party’s elections, but don’t think the same way about a general election?

It is well past time for the Texas legislature to pass a voter ID bill and send it to my desk for my signature. As we strengthen the accountability of our elections, we also need to strengthen the integrity of our border with Mexico. As America’s number one exporting state, our borders are pathways to commerce with Asia, Europe, Mexico and South America. Unfortunately, our southern border has also served as a gateway for criminals.

Every day, Mexican cartels probe our border, looking for weak points. But they are not the only ones attempting to exploit our southern border. Over the last two years, forces on the border have arrested more than 500 illegal aliens from nations with known terrorist ties, countries like Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria. This threat to Texas must be taken seriously.

Like you, I want my children to grow up in a state that is safe, with borders that are secured from the threat of crime and terror. Like you, I lost interest in waiting for the Federal Government to fulfill their obligation a long time ago. That is why I asked the legislature for $100 million for border security last year…and they gave us $110 million.

We’re using that money to put boots on the ground in strategic surge operations into high crime areas, providing high-tech support to local, state and federal law enforcement officers. It’s working—Texas is showing America how to defend the border.

Crime is down 65% in the toughest areas we have targeted with Operation Border Star and reports of decreased criminal activity are streaming in from all along the border. For example, in the city of Hidalgo, increased searches on southbound bridges and stepped-up patrol operations have shrunk criminal activity to nearly nothing. The police department in La Joya has reported that illegal crossings and crime in their town have dropped to ZERO.

We’re also having an impact beyond Texas. Recently, a newspaper in Savannah, Georgia reported that drug dealers there are starting to prey on each other and prices are going up because their supply routes through Texas have been pinched.

As we have stepped up the pressure on the Mexican crime cartels, they are relying more on Texas-based gangs to do more of their dirty work from inside our state. Answering to names like the Texas Syndicate, Mexican Mafia and MS-13…these vicious criminals regularly engage in murder, kidnapping, extortion, child prostitution, and selling illicit drugs.

The time has come to stop these murderous thugs in their tracks.

In the next legislative session, I will press for a comprehensive, statewide gang strategy to eradicate this blight within Texas borders. Good conservatives like you and me, with a clear-cut sense of right and wrong, have a responsibility…and we will fulfill it.

We will work together to cut out this cancer on our society. We will keep our children safe from the deceptive lure of gangs. We will protect our communities from gang-related drugs and violence. The drug cartels and their minions might be winning battles and killing hundreds on the other side of the border, but, in Texas, they WILL lose the war.

And we have battles of a different sort to fight in the weeks and months ahead, as our state and our nation prepare to cast their votes. I must admit that I am troubled by the divisiveness that is damaging our national party from the ground up and the top down. I won’t sugarcoat it: at the national level, our party has lost its way. The lack of fiscal discipline has been disheartening to all of us who know that it is the bedrock of the Republican Party. But we need to stick together and remember who our opponent is.

Like it or not, the Democrats are awake now, more unified than ever, and singing a seductive siren song of change. Let’s not forget what Democrats really mean when they talk about change. When Democrats talk about change they really mean the change that they’ll be sucking out of your pockets…along with your dollar bills…as they inflate government and inflate your tax bill.

Their change will include runaway regulations that stifle an employer’s ability to prosper and create more jobs. Their change will attack our values, redefine social structures and set our country on a course of unfettered liberalism.

This “change” mantra is nothing new to Democrats; it just sounds sweeter these days. But we know better. Together, we’ve been fighting the Democrats’ changes for years, changes like a state income tax, changes like legalized gay marriage, changes like driver’s licenses for illegal aliens. We fought those changes then and, together, we will fight them tomorrow.

And we need to make sure to send a genuine warrior to the White House by electing John McCain to be the next president of the United States.

If we let Democrats take over, they’ll take more of our hard-earned money and place more restrictions on what we can do with what’s left. If we let the Democrats take over, they’ll work to put more people on welfare and social programs instead of preserving an environment that frees employers to create jobs like we’ve done in Texas. The only wealth creation program the Democrats will support is one that creates wealth for the government, by way of your wallet.

I have yet to meet the Texan whose dream is to live on welfare. I have yet to meet the entrepreneur who says “tie my hands behind my back with more red tape so I can make less money and create fewer jobs.”

The change-loving Democrats talk a good game, but they’re the same ones who have worked to defeat the few members of their party who dared to take a bi-partisan approach in the Texas Legislature and work with the Republican Majority.

Things in Washington are worse. If national Democratic leaders want real positive change, they should change something that is hitting Texas families the hardest: our dependence on foreign oil. If they really wanted change, they would allow responsible exploration in ANWR, into off shore deposits, and the billions of gallons of oil locked in our nation’s shale. If they really wanted change, they would authorize the construction of more power plants and refineries so we don’t run out of energy.

But we know that Democrats don’t want to make tough choices. Instead, Democrats are the party of “designer deeds.” If Hollywood backs it, if the UN sponsors it, if it feels good and it costs more, they’re all for it. When it gets down to it, the only change Democrats want is a return the discredited philosophy that government knows best, prosperity is immoral, and personal responsibility is asking a bit too much.

Here’s what I know: working together, we will do everything in our power to keep them from implanting their precious change and, in the process, derailing our culture, wrecking our economy, and compromising our security.

This fall, we have an opportunity to send Washington and Austin a very clear message, and some great candidates, if we work together. Because we are Texas Republicans, we do things differently. We can disagree with one another and still link arms against the forces of the liberal left. Like any strong family, we might get pretty spirited at the dinner table, but, when we walk out the front door and into the neighborhood, we have each other’s back.

That is why this party has been so successful: no matter what our differences, we have been united by our love for this amazing state and commitment to its citizens who look for us to be responsible.

If you were to scan the roster of the Texas Republican Party, you would find an unbelievable diversity of gifts, talents and experience. You’ll see candidates like John Cornyn who have championed conservative values like transparency, border security and tax cutting; grassroots activists like Ruth Schiermeyer who has worked with her Rotary Club to create a groundbreaking reading program for schoolchildren in Lubbock; and patriots like Roger Williams who has covered this state from one end to the other gathering resources for a Republican resurgence. But, alone, one person can only do so much…but one person can raise a rallying cry. No matter how hard any of us might labor in solitude, with our God-given gifts and talents, and the sweat of our brow, we will be limited in our impact. Like a musical instrument with a unique and pleasing tone, we can only do so much alone.

But, if you assemble these instruments under the direction of an inspired leader, with an agreed upon song, and a common purpose, you’ll have more than a mob; you have a movement A movement whose siren sound can stir the soul, a cause that can inspire an army to charge the next hill.

Here in Texas, we are that movement. We believe in that cause. We are gonna take that hill.

Working together, marching in the same direction, celebrating our shared values, the Republican Party of Texas can continue the transformation of the greatest state in the nation. Together, we will harmonize our differences. Together, we will focus on our goals. Together, we will march to victory in 2008 and beyond. Let’s march on together. Let’s serve together. Let’s win together!

I’ll see you on the battlefield.

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