Rick Perry, Nikki Haley to Speak at Convention of RedState Bloggers
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a potential Republican candidate for president in 2012, will be among the speakers next month in Charleston, S.C., at the RedState Gathering, a national conference of conservative bloggers.
The third annual event will be Aug. 12-14 at Charleston’s Francis Marion Hotel. Registration is $149 a person.
Other speakers at the conference will include South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, a Republican; U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C.; Ted Cruz, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate from Texas; Adam Hasner, a GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate from Florida; and Michael Williams, a Republican candidate for the U.S. House from Texas.
Invites have been extended to Republican presidential contenders Herman Cain and Tim Pawlenty as well as U.S. Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., who announced in January that he isn’t pursuing a White House bid in 2012.
Among sponsors of the RedState convention are Heritage Action for America, an affiliate of the Heritage Foundation that promotes conservative federal policies; FreedomWorks, a nonprofit group that advocates for lower taxes and less government; South Carolina FairTax, a group working to eliminate state income taxes; and the Faith & Freedom Coalition, whose founder and chairman is conservative religious leader Ralph Reed.
RedState.com, the organizer of the conference, bills itself as the “leading” conservative news blog for “right-of-center online activists.”
Perry is sponsoring a contest soliciting videos from RedState supporters. The winner of the contest will attend the Charleston gathering for free and have his or her video screened for the RedState audience.
Perry’s camp describes RedState as “an online collaboration of grassroots conservatives using new media to spread the message of limited government and personal freedom.”
Erick Erickson is editor of RedState.com. He is a political contributor to CNN and host of a radio talk show in Atlanta. Before co-founding RedState.com, Erickson practiced law for six years and managed several political campaigns. He is a former member of the City Council in Macon, Ga.
The 2010 RedState Gathering was held in Austin, Texas.
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