Herman Cain says he would not endorse Rick Perry for president

Chris Moody
·Political Reporter


Herman Cain would not support Rick Perry's candidacy should Perry become the Republican Party's presidential nominee in 2012, Cain told CNN on Wednesday.

Cain, a Georgia businessman who won the Florida Republican straw poll this past weekend, cited Perry's support, as Texas governor, for giving in-state tuition to illegal immigrants as the primary reason he would withhold his endorsement.

"Today I could not support Rick Perry for a host of reasons. Him being soft on securing the border is one of the reasons. I feel very strongly about the need to secure the border for real, the need to enforce the laws that are already there, the need to promote the path to citizenship that's already there," Cain told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "But more importantly empower the states to enforce the national/federal immigration laws because the federal government didn't do it, can't do it, they never will do it. So that's where I think he and I have a basic fundamental difference of opinion."

Cain received 37 percent of the vote last weekend at the Florida "P5" straw poll in Orlando.