Gov. Rick Perry has risen to GOP front-runner status in the primary polls, but the other presidential contenders are still hot on his trail. The Tribune created this interactive to help voters compare him to other top Republican candidates on everything from their personal histories and governing experience to their stances on gay marriage and immigration. Scroll through the navigation bar to check out these candidates' similarities and differences.
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Same-Sex Marriage
The longest-serving governor in Texas history is a former West Texas cotton farmer who started his political career as a Democrat in the Texas House. After switching to the Republican Party, Perry was elected agriculture commissioner, then lieutenant governor. He succeeded George W. Bush as governor in December 2000 and has since been re-elected three times.
Romney, a management consultant, served as CEO of Bain & Company and then co-founded a spin-off investment firm, Bain Capital, that quickly made him a multimillionaire. In his first run at politics, Romney lost the 1994 Massachusetts U.S. Senate race to to incumbent Democrat Ted Kennedy. Romney was elected governor of Massachusetts in 2002 and did not seek re-election in 2006.
A longtime federal tax litigation attorney, Bachmann entered politics in 2000 as a Minnesota state senator. In 2006 she became the first female U.S. representative from Minnesota and in 2010 founded the Tea Party Caucus in Congress.
Paul, a former gynecologist and obstetrician who boasts of having delivered 4,000 babies, has served 12 terms in Congress representing Texas coastal communities.
Perry, 61, married his childhood sweetheart, Anita, whom he met at age 8 at a piano recital. They have two children, Griffin and Sydney, and a daughter-in-law, Meredith.
Romney, 64, and his wife, Ann, have five grown sons, all of whom have joined him on the campaign trail.
Bachmann, 55, and her husband, Marcus, a clinical psychologist, have five biological children and have been foster parents to 23 teenage girls.
Paul, 76, and his wife Carol have five children, all married with kids of their own. Paul's son, Rand, joined him in Congress in 2010 as a Republican senator from Kentucky.
Perry received a bachelor of arts in animal science from Texas A&M University and graduated with a 2.5 GPA.
Romney attended Brigham Young University in Utah for his undergraduate degree and received dual law and business graduate degrees from Harvard University.
Bachmann graduated from Winona State University in Minnesota and received a degree in tax law from Virginia's College of William & Mary. Bachmann also received a law degree from Oral Roberts University in Oklahoma.
Paul graduated from Gettysburg College with a degree in biology. He specialized in obstetrics/gynecology at the Duke University School of Medicine.
Perry served five years in the U.S. Air Force.
Romney has no military experience. He served as a Mormon missionary and was given a military deferment during the Vietnam War. He has said he longed to serve and regrets not having done so.
No military experience.
Paul served in the Air Force and Air National Guard.
Raised as a Methodist, Perry now attends an evangelical church in Austin. At the 30,000-strong prayer rally he hosted in Houston in August, Perry told the crowd that God was the "only hope" for a nation in crisis.
The Romney family has practiced Mormonism since the former governor's great-great-grandparents joined the church in 1841 after meeting its founder, Joseph Smith. When he was 19, Romney went on a 30-month mission trip to France.
Bachmann attends a nondenominational Christian church in Stillwater, Minn.
Paul was raised Lutheran but currently attends a conservative Baptist church. In an article titled "Christmas in Secular America," Paul wrote that "a rigid separation between church and state has no basis in either the text of the Constitution or the writings of our Founding Fathers."
Not applicable. Perry entered the presidential race in August, a month after the Federal Election Commission released the most recent campaign finance reports.
$12.7 million
$3.4 million
$3 million
Not applicable. Perry entered the presidential race in August, a month after the Federal Election Commission released the most recent campaign finance reports.
$18.3 million
$1.6 million
$4.5 million
From his lawsuits challenging federal health care reform and environmental programs to his suggestions that Texans were so angry with Washington that they might consider secession, Perry has repeatedly invoked the 10th Amendment. He promises to "stop the federal intrusion upon states by runaway agencies like the EPA" and he wrote his book Fed Up! to "rally Americans to restore the proper, constitutional balance between the federal government and the states."
Romney has invoked the 10th Amendment to defend his health reform plan for Massachusetts, which some Republican opponents have compared to the federal reform they revile: “One thing I’d never do, by the way," Romney says, "is impose a one-size-fits-all policy on the nation.”
As a constitutional conservative, Bachmann says she believes "in the founding fathers' vision of a limited government that trusts in and perceives the unlimited potential of you, the American people."
Paul has said that "true conservatives and libertarians should understand that the solution to our moral and cultural decline does not lie in a strong centralized government."
Perry's four-point strategy: lower taxes, ease up regulations on businesses, pass Texas-sized tort reform laws and educate the workforce.
Forget a federal stimulus: Lower corporate taxes and increase foreign trade, reduce regulations on energy extraction to curb dependence on foreign oil, and reform entitlement programs to cut government spending.
Cut taxes and spending, eliminate regulations imposed by the "job-killing" EPA and stop cap-and-trade practices. “There are over 600 American companies that have gone to Ireland because of the tax rate,” Bachmann said.
Opposes many free-trade agreements and says fixed interest rates and Federal Reserve policies are the biggest contributors to unemployment.
Perry's first order of business would be to repeal "Obamacare," then "start over" by freeing states of federal mandates and giving local governments more control over Medicaid and other social programs. Texas has been good fodder for Democrats: It has country's highest rate of uninsured individuals.
Romney believes states should implement their own health care plans, like Massachusetts did when he was governor. Though his state's individual mandate has drawn comparisons to "Obamacare," 98 percent of Massachusetts residents now have health insurance at a cost of $350 million a year, or 1 percent of the state budget.
Bachmann supports expanding the use of health savings accounts and making all medical expenses tax-deductible. She opposes federal health care reform.
Paul opposes federal health care reform and believes the U.S. should encourage free-market competition by putting "pressure on the providers" and forcing them to lower their costs to remain in business. He also supports allowing tax deductions for all health care costs.
An ardent abortion opponent, Perry signed a pledge to use his federal power, if elected, to appoint anti-abortion advocates to top positions and to work to defund Planned Parenthood.
Romney believes Roe v. Wade should be overturned so states can independently decide whether to outlaw abortion. He has angered some conservatives by not signing a pledge to appoint anti-abortion advocates to top federal positions. Romney campaigned in 1994 and 2002 as an abortion rights supporter but has since switched positions.
Bachmann and her husband, a psychiatrist, who staunchly oppose abortion rights, have repeatedly counseled women against having abortions. "We would take them in. We would drive them over to pro-life centers. ... It was a privilege to be a part of bringing new life into the world.”
Paul is "strongly pro-life" and has said abortion could lead the country toward legalizing euthanasia, but he believes legalization of the practice should be left to individual states, not to the federal government.
During Perry's tenure, 233 convicted criminals have been executed, more than any U.S. governor in modern history. He has commuted the death sentences of 31 inmates, including 28 who the U.S. Supreme Court said could no longer be executed because they were juveniles at the time of their crime.
Romney unsuccessfully attempted to reinstate the death penalty in Massachusetts in 2005 and again in 2007.
Bachmann's position on the death penalty is unclear. She has never had to vote on the matter or oversee an execution, and there is no capital punishment in Minnesota.
In 2007 Paul said he no longer believes in capital punishment because it "has been issued unjustly," even in cases with DNA evidence.
Texas currently has seven lawsuits filed against the EPA challenging regulations that limit emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants. In his book Fed Up!, Perry calls global warming “one contrived phony mess."
Romney says he believes the world is getting hotter but doesn't know "if it's mostly caused by humans." He opposes increasing regulations on emissions. "What I'm not willing to do is spend trillions of dollars on something I don't know the answer to," he has said.
It'll be lights out for the EPA if Bachmann is elected, as she has vowed to shut down the agency and end its environmental regulations. "The radical environmentalists have demanded that we lock up all our energy resources," she has said.
Paul backed tax incentives for clean energy development but wants environmental disputes settled by the states or the courts. He has supported Arctic drilling to increase U.S. energy independence but has opposed tax incentives for oil and gas drilling.
Perry made outlawing "sanctuary cities" a priority during the last legislative session. He has increased funding for border security in Texas and recently asked the federal government to reimburse Texas for the cost of imprisoning illegal aliens.
Romney has said the U.S. ought to build a border fence, outlaw "sanctuary cities" and keep employers from hiring illegal immigrants. He's in favor of creating an employment-verification system.
Although she advocated to bring orphaned children to the U.S. after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Bachmann strongly opposes illegal immigration.
Paul voted in favor of building a border fence to keep out immigrants from Mexico and has proposed a constitutional amendment to remove birthright citizenship. In 2007 Paul said he sees the "immigration problem as a consequence of our welfare state."
Perry says evolution is a theory "with some gaps." On the campaign trail, he inaccurately told a child that "in Texas, we teach both creationism and evolution in our public schools. Because I figure you’re smart enough to figure out which one is right.”
Romney has said he believes God created the universe and that “evolution is most likely the process he used to create the human body.”
Bachmann supports teaching intelligent design in schools. She says curriculum should be set at the local level, because government shouldn't decide on a scientific issue "when there is reasonable doubt on both sides."
"I think its a theory, the theory of evolution. And I don't accept it."
Perry has backtracked on a claim made in his book Fed Up! that states should decide whether to sanction same-sex marriage. He now says he supports a constitutional amendment to prohibit same-sex marriage. "Obviously gay marriage is not fine with me. My stance hasn't changed. I believe marriage is a union between one man and one woman," he said.
Although same-sex marriage is legal in Massachusetts, Romney signed a pledge to appoint officials, particularly judges, who oppose same-sex marriage. He has said he would defend the Defense of Marriage Act and has signed a pledge to support a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
Although Minnesota has a law on the books banning same-sex marriage, Bachmann proposed a state constitutional amendment in 2003 to prohibit it. She characterized homosexuality as "part of Satan" in a speech reposted by CBS. "Any of you who have members of your family that are in the lifestyle — we have a member of our family that is — this is not funny. It's a very sad life."
Paul believes same-sex marriage is an issue of personal liberty and should be left up to individual states. "While I oppose federal efforts to redefine marriage as something other than a union between one man and one woman, I do not believe a constitutional amendment is either a necessary or proper way to defend marriage."