Rick Perry says he hopes to earn Tim Pawlenty’s endorsement

Reporting from Portsmouth, N.H. —  Texas Gov. Rick Perry offered words of support for Tim Pawlenty during his visit to a family festival in New Hampshire Sunday, stating that he hoped to win Pawlenty’s endorsement in his presidential bid and calling the former Minnesota governor a great friend.

Perry, who served with Pawlenty on the executive council of the Republican Governors Assn. working to elect more Republican governors across the country, said they had traveled to Iraq and Afghanistan together and “spent a lot of quality personal time.”

“He is one of my favorite governors out there, not only because of what a Republican governor did in a pretty blue state, but also in a personal way. He is one of the funniest guys I’ve ever been around in my life and I just love him,” Perry said, adding that they often “joke and poke each other.”

Perry said he and Pawlenty spoke by telephone Sunday morning, and the former Minnesota governor, who withdrew from the presidential race Sunday, said he was going to go home and rest up, take his daughter off to college and “clear his head a little bit.”

On the phone, Perry said he’d told Pawlenty, ‘Daggonit… I was looking forward to getting out there and jousting with you.’”

“He said, ‘Yeah and I would have kicked your tail too,’” Pawlenty told him.