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Rick Perry’s wife, Anita, says husband won’t drop out despite low polls

RYE, N.H. - Even as Texas Governor Rick Perry has dropped in the polls, his wife, Anita Perry, reassured voters today that he will not drop out of the race.

Anita Perry told voters at a Seacoast Republican Women’s tea that an Air Force veteran who knows Rick Perry stopped her in a store while she was Christmas shopping and said, “Tell Rick not to drop out…. Don’t give up on middle America.”

“I assured him we weren’t going to drop out,” she said.

After Rick Perry got in the race Aug. 13, Anita Perry said her husband raised $17 million in 47 days. “We have the organization on the ground, money in the bank, we’re working very hard to get back up, to be where those are who have been running longer than we have,” she said.

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Rick Perry had a huge spike in the polls when he first entered the race, but has since lost popularity after stumbling in several debates. Most of the candidates started their campaigns much earlier than he did.

While Rick Perry has recently been campaigning in Iowa, his wife made four stops in New Hampshire today, speaking at a retirement home, a VFW luncheon, a business tour, and the women’s tea.

As her husband does on the campaign trail, Anita Perry, a nurse, criticized President Obama’s health care overhaul, along with the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory reform. She touted her husband’s record creating jobs as governor of Texas.

She also defended her husband’s controversial position of supporting in-state tuition for children of illegal immigrants. Anita Perry said the students still have to pay tuition, and have to work on their citizenship while in school. She pointed out that the Texas legislature passed the in-state tuition law overwhelmingly. “Rick wanted to educate them to make them taxpayers,” she said. “If you don’t, they’ll become tax wasters, on social welfare.”

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Shira Schoenberg can be reached at sschoenberg@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @shiraschoenberg.