Report: Perry not paying campaign staff

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry has stopped paying his campaign staff due to a lack of funds, according to multiple reports. 

National Journal reported late Monday that the former Texas governor’s campaign had stopped paying his staff in South Carolina, with a representative saying “pay is only one reason people do this.”

{mosads}But Perry’s campaign has stopped paying staff at its headquarters in Austin as well as in the early voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, according to The Washington Post. 

Jeff Miller, Perry’s campaign manager, told staff on Friday that campaign expenses were limited to travel and staffers were allowed to look for other work, the Post and CBS News reported. 

Most aides, so far at least, have stayed with the campaign, a Republican told the Post. 

Perry has sought to reintroduce himself after his failed 2012 White House bid but has so far struggled to gain traction in early voting states. He didn’t make the main stage at last week’s first GOP debate because he polled below the top 10 in Fox News’s criteria.

In an earlier debate held for the second-tier candidates, he was overshadowed by businesswoman Carly Fiorina, who was widely judged to be the debate’s winner.

Perry’s campaign raised $1.1 million by the end of June, a significant drop from the same period in his 2012 campaign. His campaign has been bolstered by nearly $17 million raised by groups supporting his 2016 bid.

“Here are the facts: We have plenty of money to put him in position to finish in the top three or even win Iowa,” Austin Barbour, a strategist working for the Perry super-PACs, told The New York Times.