Ross Perot, the diminutive billionaire Texas businessman who made the deficit an issue of national concern when he ran as an independent presidential candidate in 1992 and 1996, has died at 89.

He had been suffering from leukemia for the past five months. His family said that secondary infection nearly killed him in March but he rallied, continuing to go to his office most days wearing a dark suit and an American flag pin. In his final months, he hosted well-wishers at Perot headquarters on Turtle Creek Boulevard in Dallas and spent Easter with his family at their compound in Bermuda.