AUSTIN, Texas — Energy Secretary Rick Perry, whose agency oversees the nation’s nuclear arsenal, is inserting himself into an unusually small political dispute: an election for student body president at Texas A&M.
In an op-ed submitted to the Houston Chronicle, the former Texas governor suggested that his alma mater’s first openly gay president may have stolen the outcome. Perry wrote that the campus election “at best made a mockery of due process and transparency” and at worst “allowed an election to be stolen outright.”
“It is difficult to escape the perception that this quest for ‘diversity’ is the real reason the election outcome was overturned,” he wrote. “Does the principle of ‘diversity’ override and supersede all other values of our Aggie Honor Code?”
Those who know Perry best said they’re not surprised that he would take the unusual step of weighing in on a parochial issue at his alma mater – even though he’s now a member of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet.
“There are three institutions that are most important to Rick Perry, his wife and family, the U.S. military and Texas A&M. It depended on the day, or the weekend, which one had the top priority,” said Ray Sullivan, a former Perry chief of staff and veteran of the ex-governor’s unsuccessful presidential runs in 2012 and 2016.
The campus election ended with junior economics major Bobby Brooks winning about 4,200 votes. Another candidate, Robert McIntosh, son of Dallas-based GOP fundraiser Alison McIntosh, got nearly 5,000 but was disqualified amid complaints he intimidated voters and failed to provide receipts for glow sticks used in an online campaign video.
McIntosh appealed to a student court, which dismissed charges of voter fraud but upheld those of incomplete financial disclosure, awarding the election to Brooks this week.
