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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Rick Perry, Candace Owens to speak at Washington Policy Center fundraiser in Spokane

Energy Secretary Rick Perry speaks at the California GOP fall convention in Indian Wells, California, in this September 2019 photo. Perry will speak at a planned fundraiser for free market think tank the Washington Policy Center in Spokane in October. (Chris Carlson / AP)

Former U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry and conservative political commentator Candace Owens will speak in Spokane in October at a fundraiser held by the Washington Policy Center.

The center, which bills itself as “an independent, nonprofit think tank” promoting free market ideas, has annually brought prominent Republicans to town to raise funds for research projects. Past speakers have included Gen. James Mattis, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Brexit architect Nigel Farage.

The event is planned for Oct. 16 at the Davenport Grand Hotel. Individual tickets start at $200.

Perry served as governor of Texas from 2000 to 2015 and unsuccessfully ran twice for the GOP presidential nomination. He served as President Donald Trump’s energy secretary from 2017 until his resignation in December, just ahead of an impeachment vote in Congress.

Trump told Republican leaders he’d made a call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at Perry’s request, a phone call that became the basis for a whistleblower complaint launching the impeachment inquiry.

Owens has frequently testified on Capitol Hill at the request of Republican lawmakers, and hosts a weekly talk show on the conservative video platform PragerU.

In a Feb. 27 tweet, Owens accused political progressives of creating a “Doomsday Cult” when raising alarms about the fast-spreading coronavirus. Five Americans died that week of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus. The death toll now stands at more than 30,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Washington Policy Center raised $1.2 million in 2018, the most recent year the organization has submitted records to the IRS.