AUSTIN, Tex. — As Gov. Rick Perry of Texas begins his presidential campaign, he is working hard to position himself as the leading Republican champion of states’ rights, using his high-profile battles with Washington and his book on the dangers of federal power to build an ideological and constitutional rationale for his fierce anti-Obama message.

From his lawsuits challenging federal health care and environmental programs to his suggestions that Texans were so angry with Washington that they might consider secession, Mr. Perry has repeatedly invoked the 10th Amendment — reserving to the states the powers not explicitly given to the national government.

Mr. Perry uses the issue of states’ rights to give his candidacy an overarching theme, tap into the frustrations that have fueled the Tea Party movement and highlight the substance behind his swaggering style.

Though the governor has a claim to acting on these principles, he has come to publicly embrace states’ rights as a defining issue only in the past few years, a period when the 10th Amendment has been a rallying cry for many Tea Party supporters, libertarians and others who make up his party’s conservative base. And he has been inconsistent in applying those beliefs, drawing criticism from some states’ rights advocates and raising questions even among fellow Republicans about whether his stance is as much campaign positioning as a philosophical commitment.