Retiring Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison refused today to soften any of the criticisms she leveled at Texas Gov. Rick Perry when she challenged him in last year’s GOP gubernatorial primary.

“I’m not going to backtrack on anything I said,” Hutchison told CNN’s “State of the Union” when asked whether her criticisms still stand against Perry, who is running for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination. “I tried to give Texas a choice. … He was pretty brutal on my record, and I took on his record. And so that’s the way politics is, and it does come back.”

Hutchison lost by more than 20 points in the March 2010 gubernatorial primary.

“I thought we needed a choice in Texas, and I certainly feel the same way about the United States,” she said without offering an endorsement in the presidential race.