$2,651,429.14. That's the estimate of how taxpayer money Texas Governor Rick Perry spent on his 160-day amateur presidential campaign. Here's how we crunched the numbers:
According to records released by the Texas Department of Public Safety and published by the Texas Tribune, we can project Perry’s security costs from the day he officially announced his candidacy (August 13, 2011) to the time he suspended his campaign (January 19, 2012). Here is the total amount of taxpayer dollars spent during the 24-day window for which Texas DPS has released records: