NEW ORLEANS – A candidate in waiting, Texas Gov. Rick Perry is elbowing the Republicans already in the 2012 presidential race as he courts party activists, operatives and donors still shopping for someone to back against President Obama.

His appearance Saturday at the Republican Leadership Conference offered yet another tantalizing hint that he’s ready to upend a crowded field of candidates who have worked months to amass name recognition, organization and campaign cash. The longest-serving governor of his state drew much interest despite little effort so far to put together a traditional campaign.

“I stand before you today as a disciplined conservative Texan, a committed Republican and a proud American, united with you to restoring our nation and revive the American dream,” Perry said during an address that repeatedly drew the crowd to its feet.

He sounded every bit a candidate.

“Our shared conservative values, our belief in the individual is the great hope of our nation,” he said.

Perry has long insisted he wouldn’t run. But in recent weeks, he has softened his refusals and his advisers have started laying the groundwork for a campaign in Iowa. They characterize it as a coin toss whether he enters the field in the coming weeks.

The coyote-shooting, tough-talking ex-Democrat has never lost an election. As Republicans try to determine the strongest challenger to Obama, the party establishment and tea partiers don’t seem satisfied with their current options.

Perry’s message to them: never settle.

“Our party cannot be all things to all people. It can’t be. Our loudest opponents on the left are never going to like us so let’s stop trying to curry favor with them,” Perry said. “Let’s stand up and speak with pride about our morals and our values.” The Republican presidential field remains murky.

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, who used Monday’s debate in New Hampshire to enter the race, raised the New Orleans crowd to its feet on Friday and spurred bloggers again on Saturday at the other end of the Mississippi where she cast herself as “a very different kind of leader.”

It’s a pitch similar to Herman Cain, a former pizza executive and tea party favorite who has never served in public office. U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, a favorite among the libertarian wing of the party, won the New Orleans straw poll after a rousing speech railing against Washington and the Federal Reserve.

All are trying to spark interest and capture the imagination of their party’s most active members. In speeches tailored for the party’s base, they hit similar messages about making Obama a one-term president, repealing his health care overhaul and lowering taxes.

Absent from Saturday’s event were the nominal front-runner, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney; former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty; and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman.