Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry has stopped paying his presidential campaign staff amid slow fundraising that has left his 2016 bid cash-starved after barely two months.
Perry's Iowa state chairman, Sam Clovis, says he was on a conference call with Austin campaign headquarters Monday night. He says staffers on the call were told pay would be suspended.
Clovis says he plans to keep working for Perry as a volunteer. Staffers elsewhere say they're also staying put as volunteers, including in South Carolina.
Fundraising has been sluggish. Perry only raised about $1 million in the first month of campaigning. He barely missed polling high enough to make the main stage at last week's Republican debate.
But Perry-aligned super PACs have raised about $17 million and say they can keep Perry afloat through the Iowa caucuses.
Spokesman Lucy Nashed said in a statement Monday that "tough decisions have to be made in respect to both monetary and time-related resources."
Perry has nonetheless spent more time than any White House hopeful in Iowa, which opens presidential primary voting, and has frequently visited New Hampshire and South Carolina, home to the next two primaries.
Nashed said Perry "remains committed to competing" in all three.
Photo: Brian Snyder/Reuters
