Will he? Perry to say June 4 if he'll run again for president

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Friday he will make an announcement in June on whether he is throwing his hat into the presidential ring.

Perry, the longest-serving governor in Texas history, has spent months traveling and speaking in the early voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina as he gears up for a possible second White House bid.

Perry's wife, Anita, tweeted the first word of Perry's plan for an announcement and then emailed supporters about it.

"America is facing a time of testing, and it's clear that we need principled leadership and an optimistic vision to see us through after eight years of the Obama Administration," she wrote.

A Perry spokesman told The Associated Press on Friday he is not ready to declare his candidacy. "He's announcing his intentions on June 4," Perry spokesman Travis Considine said in Washington, where he was traveling with Perry. "He has not said what he'll be announcing. You'll have to stay tuned."

Asked if he knew whether Perry had made up his mind, senior adviser Jeff Miller said, "I do know that," but held back on details.

When Perry got into the 2012 presidential race, he announced his campaign in South Carolina. He entered as a potential front-runner but flamed out after a series of blunders, including an infamous "oops" moment when Perry couldn't remember, during a GOP debate, the name of the third Cabinet agency he wanted to eliminate.

Perry left office in January and is facing a criminal abuse-of-power indictment in Austin for threatening in 2012 to veto state funding for public corruption prosecutors and then doing so.

Besides maintaining his travel schedule, Perry has been studying with policy experts in an effort to make a stronger impression than he did in his first presidential run.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.