--- title: Rick Perry Is the Designated Survivor for the State of the Union – and the Internet Has Thoughts description: Secretary of Energy Rick Perry is the designated survivor for the 2019 State of the Union address. canonical: https://time.com/5522108/designated-survivor-rick-perry-state-union/ author: Tara Law article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-02-06T01:53:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T01:02:30.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Rick Perry Is the Designated Survivor for the State of the Union – and the Internet Has Thoughts og:description: Secretary of Energy Rick Perry is the designated survivor for the 2019 State of the Union address. og:url: https://time.com/5522108/designated-survivor-rick-perry-state-union/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7f725199bc738bfb/6989449a8fd2ee42d835db9c/rick-perry.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: HUNGARY-US-POLITICS-DIPLOMACY og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Rick Perry Is the Designated Survivor for the State of the Union – and the Internet Has Thoughts twitter:description: Secretary of Energy Rick Perry is the designated survivor for the 2019 State of the Union address. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7f725199bc738bfb/6989449a8fd2ee42d835db9c/rick-perry.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Rick Perry Is the Designated Survivor for the State of the Union – and the Internet Has Thoughts > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Tara Law](https://time.com/author/tara-law/)  ## Tara Law Updated: Dec 13, 2023 1:02 AM UTCPublished: Feb 6, 2019 1:53 AM UTC  US Energy Secretary Rick Perry speaks in Budapest on November 13, 2018. US Energy Secretary Rick Perry speaks in Budapest on November 13, 2018. ATTILA KISBENEDEK—AFP/Getty Images  by [Tara Law](https://time.com/author/tara-law/)  ## Tara Law Updated: Dec 13, 2023 1:02 AM UTCPublished: Feb 6, 2019 1:53 AM UTC Secretary of Energy Rick Perry is the designated survivor for the 2019 State of the Union address. During events that bring the whole government together (such as an Inauguration or State of the Union address), a [“designated survivor](http://time.com/4501297/designated-survivor-abc-kiefer-sutherland/)” – a member of Congress or a low-level cabinet member – waits in a secure location, ready to take over and lead the country in the unlikely event of a disaster. The practice [originated](https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/StateUnionCabinet.pdf) at some point during the Cold War, but it took on renewed resonance after the Sept. 11 attacks. In 2018, the State of the Union Survivor was Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. The idea of the designated survivor was so intriguing that inspired the network TV show _Designated Survivor,_ starring Kiefer Sutherland. The series ran for two seasons on ABC, and Netflix is planning to release a third season sometime this year. As soon as the news that Rick Perry is the designated survivor was announced, people took to Twitter to remember the moment the Energy Secretary and former presidential candidate appeared on the reality show Dancing with the Stars. > [](https://twitter.com/ryanbeckwith/status/1092963623012429825) > [](https://twitter.com/igorbobic/status/1092963249299939328) > [](https://twitter.com/betsy%5Fklein/status/1092962880461320192) Perry is also remembered for his time as a 2016 presidential candidate, when he said he wanted to cut three government departments during a debate – and then forgetting that he wanted to cut the department he now leads. “The third agency of government I would do away with—the education, uh, the, uh, commerce and let’s see. I can’t—the third one. Sorry. Oops,” [Perry said.](http://time.com/5522108/designated-survivor-rick-perry-state-union/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5522108/designated-survivor-rick-perry-state-union/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5522108/designated-survivor-rick-perry-state-union/"},"headline":"Rick Perry Is the Designated Survivor for the State of the Union – and the Internet Has Thoughts","datePublished":"2019-02-06T01:53:47.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T01:02:30.000Z","description":"Secretary of Energy Rick Perry is the designated survivor for the 2019 State of the Union address.","url":"https://time.com/5522108/designated-survivor-rick-perry-state-union/","keywords":["Congress","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7f725199bc738bfb/6989449a8fd2ee42d835db9c/rick-perry.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tara Law","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tara-law/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7f725199bc738bfb/6989449a8fd2ee42d835db9c/rick-perry.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"HUNGARY-US-POLITICS-DIPLOMACY","caption":"HUNGARY-US-POLITICS-DIPLOMACY","creditText":"ATTILA KISBENEDEK—AFP/Getty Images","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/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5522108/designated-survivor-rick-perry-state-union/","name":"Rick Perry Is the Designated Survivor for the State of the Union – and the Internet Has Thoughts"}}]}] ```