Rick Perry dares Democrats to spend 'a ton of money' in Texas, vows they'll 'get their hat handed to them'

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Rick Perry: The Democrats' motto should be open borders and closed schools

Rick Perry, former Texas governor, secretary of energy and GOP presidential candidate, joins Neil Cavuto on 'Your World.'

Democrats enticed by the idea of winning Texas in a presidential election for the first time in more than four decades should sink their resources into the Lone Star State, former Republican governor and Energy Secretary Rick Perry told "Your World" Monday.

"Since 2002, the media and those on the left have said Texas is going back to being a Democrat state, [as if] we had this little foray with the Republicans, but we are coming back to the Democrat Party," Perry told host Neil Cavuto.

"That was a story every four years. Every four years, the media said 'Oh, my God, Rick Perry, he's gonna be on his way out this time.' Fourteen-plus years later and now Greg Abbott winning overwhelmingly -- with Hispanic votes, I might add -- over 50% in his last reelection cycle [in 2018]. It is the same old story, I hope the Democrats ... spend a ton of money here. Because they will get their hat handed to them again in Texas."

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Texas has not backed a Democrat for president since Jimmy Carter in 1976. The last Democrat to be elected to the U.S. Senate from Texas was Lloyd Bentsen in 1988, the same year he was nominated as vice president on the Democratic ticket.

Ann Richards was the last Democratic governor of Texas, losing her reelection bid to George W. Bush in 1994.

Perry, who succeeded Bush as governor in 2000 and and became the longest-serving chief executive in state history, told Cavuto that Texas voters need to take a hard look at the Democratic ticket of Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., as they plan to "take [Americans'] guns, raise taxes and halt the oil and natural gas fracking industries."

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President Trump has repeatedly invoked that part of the Democratic ticket's platform and has warned residents of states like Texas, Pennsylvania and North Dakota that energy sector jobs will vanish under a President Biden.

Perry sardonically added that the Democrats should consider adopting the campaign slogan of "open borders, closed schools."