Dancing with the Stars' Rick Perry Has a 'Whole New Appreciation' for Dancers After Elimination

staff@people.com (Mariaah Haas and Aurelie Corinthios)
Updated

Rick Perry's Dancing with the Stars run may have been short, but it was definitely sweet.

"Listen, I'm honored to have been here," the former Texas Gov. told reporters after being eliminated on Tuesday's episode.

"It is a great privilege to be on Dancing with the Stars, and more importantly I got to see and have a whole new appreciation for some professionals," he continued. "Whether it was the costume artists, the makeup artists, the individuals moving sets around ... Obviously, the professional dancers, the producers."

"This is a first class operation, and I'm just privileged to have been a part of it," he added. "Not quite as long as I wanted to be a part of it, but you know, it is what it is and I had a wonderful time."

While he admitted he'll "miss the show," as well as his dancing pro Emma Slater, Perry, 66, is looking forward to recovering at home in anticipation of his daughter's Oct. 15 wedding.

"I'm going to go home and enjoy being back with my family and my dogs," he said. "It's my only daughter. [The wedding] is a damn big event. Maybe not in size, but it's a big event in my life, it's a big event in her life, so the number of people there is inconsequential to the fact that she's marrying a wonderful guy and we're getting a new addition to our family so I'm pretty excited about that."

As for his moves on his daughter's big day? The politician is preparing for a foxtrot!

"I'll still help you out!" promised Slater, 27.



And ultimately, Perry, who is campaigning for GOP nominee Donald Trump, said he hopes his DWTS gig helped cast the Republican Party in a different light.

"You know, I was probably more helpful to Donald last night being here then sitting in the audience at the debate because people got to see a Republican that they may have thought was some stuffed shirt – you know, right-wing, crazy whack job or however they would like to identify us – and over the course of the last month, people got to see a person I think that they came to enjoy being around and liked," he said. "[They] saw a real different individual than may have been caricatured in the media over the course of the last 14 years."

Dancing with the Stars airs Mondays and Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.