WI: Rick Perry remained a Democrat?

[Emperor Norton I]

What if Rick Perry had not swapped party and remained a Democrat?

In 1984, Perry was elected to the Texas House of Representatives as a Democrat from district 64 that included his home county of Haskell. He served on the House Appropriations and Calendars committees during his three two-year terms in office. He befriended fellow freshman state representative Lena Guerrero of Austin, a staunch liberal Democrat who endorsed Perry's reelection bid in 2006 on personal, rather than philosophical, grounds. Perry was part of the "Pit Bulls", a group of Appropriations members who sat on the lower dais in the committee room (or "pit") who pushed for austere state budgets during the 1980s.
Perry supported Al Gore in the 1988 Democratic presidential primaries as chairman of the Gore campaign in Texas.[14][15]
In 1989, Perry announced that he was joining the Republican Party.[16] At one point, The Dallas Morning News named him one of the ten most effective members of the legislature.[17][18]

[Nazi Space Spy]

You need to keep Democrats conservative until he reaches national prominence. Maybe Lloyd Bentsen is on the top of the ticket in 88, still losses, but does better then Dukakis. Around 1990 Perry can run for Congress, and the Dems can take any path they want. Perry will remain loyal to the Democrats once established, and could rise further to the Senate etc.

[JoeMulk]

he'd eventually end up as another Zell Miller

[Catmo]

Perry is a crazy man who will go wherever the winds blow. If he sticks with Gore and Richards wins as in OTL and he falls in with Harold Washington and Shelia Jackson-Lee> I can see him running the Richards campaign against W.

There is no inside to Rick Perry. He could easily have become anything. I can see him becoming a mostly liberal opponent to Chisum and Heflin in the "prick to touch an asshole" legislative revision that could have totally prevented Lawrence vs Texas case.

Just remember. There is no epistemic inside to Rick Perry. He is a mindless hollow shell with great cunning.

[TNF]

Perry sticks with the Democratic Party, becoming a sort of Clintonian-style centrist with some socially conservative positions?

He'd probably still be in the Texas legislature. Maybe as Minority Leader or something by now?

[Bulletsfromthegrassyknoll]

He'd be a "Conservative Democrat", the opposite of a blue dog. Socially conservative, fiscally close to the center.