--- title: Rick Perry Wows Conservatives With Call For ‘A Little Rebellion’ description: The GOP Texas governor, who is seeking to repair his image after his failed 2012 presidential bid, told an audience that "it's time for a little rebellion on the battlefield of ideas," and laid out the successes under his watch in the state canonical: https://time.com/15806/rick-perry-cpac-2014/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-07T16:15:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T06:38:55.935Z article:section: Politics og:title: Rick Perry Wows Conservatives With Call For ‘A Little Rebellion’ og:description: The GOP Texas governor, who is seeking to repair his image after his failed 2012 presidential bid, told an audience that "it's time for a little rebellion on the battlefield of ideas," and laid out the successes under his watch in the state og:url: https://time.com/15806/rick-perry-cpac-2014/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt97656f4fafd83d49/69868480810bbb6ac9c905f4/time-rick-perry-cpac-140307.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: RICK PERRY CPAC og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Rick Perry Wows Conservatives With Call For ‘A Little Rebellion’ twitter:description: The GOP Texas governor, who is seeking to repair his image after his failed 2012 presidential bid, told an audience that "it's time for a little rebellion on the battlefield of ideas," and laid out the successes under his watch in the state twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt97656f4fafd83d49/69868480810bbb6ac9c905f4/time-rick-perry-cpac-140307.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Rick Perry Wows Conservatives With Call For 'A Little Rebellion' by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Mar 7, 2014 4:15 PM UTC  Texas Governor Rick Perry speaks during day two of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Md., March 7, 2014. Texas Governor Rick Perry speaks during day two of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Md., March 7, 2014.Lexey Swall—Lexey Swall—GRAIN for TIME by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Mar 7, 2014 4:15 PM UTC Texas Gov. Rick Perry brought life to a sleepy crowd at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday, with a barn-burner address filled with red meat for the audience. Perry, a 2012 presidential contender whose campaign quickly collapsed once he became a front-runner, has been working to rehab his image among Republicans and voters nationally in preparation for a potential run in 2016\. At CPAC, Perry sold the crowd on his vision for a smaller, more efficient federal government. “It is time for Washington to focus on the few things the constitution establishes as the federal government’s role, defend our country, provide a cogent foreign policy, and what the heck, deliver the mail, preferably on time and on Saturdays,” he said, drawing loud rounds of applause. “Get out of the health care business, get out of the education business, stop hammering industries, let the sleeping giant of American enterprise create prosperity again. “My fellow conservatives, the future of this nation is upon you,” he added. “It belongs to you.” Perry opened his speech saying “it’s time for a little rebellion on the battlefield of ideas,” laying out the successes under his watch in Texas, which has undergone an economic boom. Perry has sought to recast himself as a conservative intellectual force—a far cry from [the “oops” moment](http://youtu.be/0uvmKnFY4uk) that came to define his 2012 campaign. See a transcript of Perry speech below: --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/15806/rick-perry-cpac-2014/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/15806/rick-perry-cpac-2014/"},"headline":"Rick Perry Wows Conservatives With Call For 'A Little Rebellion'","datePublished":"2014-03-07T16:15:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T06:38:55.935Z","description":"The GOP Texas governor, who is seeking to repair his image after his failed 2012 presidential bid, told an audience that \"it's time for a little rebellion on the battlefield of ideas,\" and laid out the successes under his watch in the state","url":"https://time.com/15806/rick-perry-cpac-2014/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election topic","CPAC","rick perry"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt97656f4fafd83d49/69868480810bbb6ac9c905f4/time-rick-perry-cpac-140307.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Zeke Miller","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt97656f4fafd83d49/69868480810bbb6ac9c905f4/time-rick-perry-cpac-140307.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"RICK PERRY CPAC","caption":"RICK PERRY CPAC","creditText":"Lexey Swall—Lexey Swall—GRAIN for TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/15806/rick-perry-cpac-2014/","name":"Rick Perry Wows Conservatives With Call For 'A Little Rebellion'"}}]}] ```