By Andy Sullivan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Texas Governor Rick Perry will announce whether he will mount a second bid for president in the November 2016 election at a Dallas event on June 4, an aide said on Friday.
The longest-serving governor in the history of Texas, Perry has worked to overhaul his image since his 2012 Republican candidacy fell apart in an embarrassing debate performance that became infamous as his "oops moment."
Perry has presented himself since then as a more thoughtful, policy-oriented candidate with a solid record of job creation.
Wearing his now-ubiquitous thick-framed glasses, Perry has spent the past several months arguing his efforts to keep taxes low and boost the energy sector in the nation's third-largest state from 2000 to 2014 were a central reason that Texas added 2.2 million jobs during that period.
He faces perhaps a more difficult field of Republican opponents in 2016 than in the previous cycle, when he was seen briefly as a serious challenger to eventual nominee Mitt Romney.
Despite regular appearances in key primary states like Iowa, Perry has failed to register in Reuters/Ipsos opinion polling of the 2016 Republican presidential field.