Harvey Peeler

Texas governor and GOP presidential contender Rick Perry added an endorsement from one of the Upstate’s most powerful elected officials in a brief stop to the area late Saturday morning.

Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler, R-Gaffney, threw his support behind the candidate who has shot to the forefront of the Republican presidential race just one week after announcing his candidacy in Charleston.

Peeler cited Perry’s job creation record in explaining the endorsement.

“His record as governor of Texas is what we need,” Peeler said in an interview with the Herald-Journal. “We desperately need a leader in the White House, and he’s the person.”

Columbia GOP consultant Wesley Donehue, who works for Peeler, tweeted later Saturday that Peeler had called Perry months ago to ask him to seek the Republican nomination.

Perry did not make a statement or speak to the media during his impromptu stop in Gaffney, set in a restaurant parking lot adjacent to the town’s giant peach water tower. A crowd of about 50 people attended the gathering.

After the stop, Peeler rode on Perry’s campaign bus to an official event in Rock Hill, the final campaign event of Perry’s two-day swing through the state.

Ed Morrell of Boiling Springs stopped to watch Perry in Gaffney and said he’s strongly considering voting for the Texas governor in South Carolina’s first-in-the-South Republican presidential primary tentatively slated for February.

Morrell, a 72-year-old Republican, said he’s “still shopping around,” but likes Perry’s jobs and low unemployment record in Texas.

“That’s going to be a great advantage,” he said.

According to data released on Friday, Texas’ unemployment rate was 8.4 percent in July, the highest level there in nearly a quarter century.

But that rate is still much lower than the latest figures from the Palmetto State. South Carolina’s unemployment rate was 10.9 percent in July.

At a stop in Greenville earlier Saturday morning, Perry garnered the endorsement of former U.S. ambassador to Canada David Wilkins.

Wilkins, a Republican, served 25 years in the South Carolina Legislature, including as House speaker for 11 of those years.

According to the Associated Press, Wilkins was a top fundraiser for George W. Bush’s 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns and served as his South Carolina campaign chairman in 2004.

Courtesy of The Spartanburg Herald-Journal