By most accounts, Rick Perry’s presidential bid is in trouble. Last month, the campaign announced that it would no longer be able to pay its staff across the country. Now, to make matters worse, it’s had to move out of its campaign headquarters in the key primary state of South Carolina.
So what’s the reason for the move? Perry state chairman Katon Dawson—who had provided the office space in Columbia—initially told CNN that a realtor had found a “hot new client” for the space. Later on Tuesday, Dawson gave a different account to a local television station in Columbia: The campaign, he said, chose to move its headquarters to another one of Dawson’s properties, because of “safety concerns.”
Whatever the reason for the move, Perry is struggling in South Carolina. On Saturday, the state’s GOP chairman said the campaign was “on life support” in the state and expressed skepticism that Perry would be able to drum up the $40,000 needed to get on the South Carolina primary ballot.