Update at 11:40 p.m. Perry says he is returning to Texas to reconsider his presidential campaign.
Earlier: Texas Governor Rick Perry, speaking this afternoon on CNN, says he will “continue on” tomorrow in South Carolina, regardless of how well he performs tonight in Iowa.
“The idea that one or two states is going to decide who the next nominee for the Republican party is just, that’s not reality,” Perry told CNN’s John King. “This is a fifty-state campaign.”
King asked Perry if he was worried that socially conservative candidates including Perry, Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum could split the far right vote and hand the nomination to Mitt Romney, a former Massachusetts governor.
But Perry dodged the question, saying comparisons to past elections don’t apply in this race.
“Today won’t decide it, I will suggest to you,” Perry said. “South Carolina will come near giving us a better clue who’s going to be the Republican nominee.”
