Newt Gingrich

Newt Gingrich (born June 17, 1943, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, U.S.) American politician, who served as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives (1995–98); he was the first Republican to hold the office in 40 years. He later sought the party’s nomination for president in 2012.

Early life and start of political career

His parents divorced, and he later took the surname of his mother’s second husband. After graduating from Emory University (1965), Gingrich studied modern European history at Tulane University (M.A., 1968; Ph.D., 1971) and taught at West Georgia College (1970–78). After unsuccessful runs for the U.S. Congress in 1974 and 1976, he won a seat from a district outside Atlanta in 1978. Gingrich quickly became known for his confrontational manner and conservative policies. In 1987 he attacked Speaker of the House Jim Wright for questionable financial dealings; the charges forced Wright to resign in 1989. That same year, Gingrich was narrowly elected House minority whip by his Republican colleagues with a vote of 87–85.

“Contract with America” and speaker of the House

Aided by President Bill Clinton’s unpopularity, the Republican Party gained control of Congress following the 1994 midterm elections. Gingrich was seen as the architect of the victory, especially noted for helping draft the “Contract with America,” a document outlining legislation to be enacted by the House within the first 100 days of the 104th Congress. Among the proposals were tax cuts, a permanent line-item veto, and a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget. In December 1994 Gingrich was chosen by the majority Republicans as House speaker, and he assumed the office the following month. With one exception, all parts of the “Contract with America” were passed by the House.

Shortly after becoming speaker, however, Gingrich’s popularity began to wane. In late 1995 he was widely blamed for partial government shutdowns after refusing to compromise with President Clinton on the federal budget. He also faced a series of ethics investigations. In 1995 he returned a $4.5 million book advance after the House ethics committee questioned its appropriateness. The following year an investigative subcommittee found that, in connection with a college course he taught from 1993 to 1995, Gingrich had failed to seek legal advice concerning tax-exempt donations used to fund the class and that he had inaccurately denied the involvement of GOPAC, a political action committee that he once headed, in the course’s development. Based on these findings, the ethics committee concluded that he had violated House rules, and in January 1997 the House of Representatives voted to accept the committee’s recommendation that Gingrich be reprimanded for providing false information to the committee and that he pay $300,000, an amount that the committee characterized as partial reimbursement for its investigation. Amid the controversies, which resulted in Gingrich becoming the first speaker in the House’s history to be given a formal reprimand for ethics violations, he was narrowly reelected to the position in early 1997.

In January 1998, reports surfaced alleging that Clinton had lied before a federal grand jury concerning his involvement in an extramarital affair with a former White House intern. Gingrich backed a bid to impeach and remove the president from office. Many voters concluded that the House had overreached in its attack on Clinton, and the Republicans lost five seats to Democrats in the 1998 midterm elections. Following the election, there was a backlash against Gingrich within the Republican Party, with numerous Republicans blaming him for failing to present a clear and innovative agenda to the country and instead choosing to focus party strategy upon the impeachment proceedings against a highly popular president. Faced with dwindling support, Gingrich stepped down as speaker of the House in November 1998, and in January 1999 he resigned his seat in Congress.

2012 presidential campaign

Gingrich remained involved in politics, serving as a consultant and as a television commentator on the Fox News Channel. In 2007 he founded American Solutions for Winning the Future, a public policy organization. Amid speculation that he would run for president in 2012, Fox terminated his contract in May 2011. Shortly thereafter Gingrich announced his candidacy. Gingrich’s campaign was almost over before it began, however, when many of his senior advisers resigned en masse in June 2011. Strong performances in a series of televised debates helped him regain his stride, and, by December, national polls of Republicans were showing Gingrich and Mitt Romney as the party’s leading candidates. Gingrich’s subsequent performances over the early months of 2012 were uneven: he won contests in South Carolina and Georgia and finished second in Florida, Nevada, Alabama, and Mississippi, but he placed no higher than third in some 20 other state primaries and caucuses held between January and March. By late March, Gingrich’s campaign acknowledged that he would be unable to win enough delegates to secure the nomination before the Republican National Convention in August. Gingrich subsequently reduced his staff and scaled back his public appearances, though he vowed to stay in the race. In early May, however, he suspended his campaign.

Later career: TV and books

Gingrich continued to maintain a high media profile, however, and in September 2013 he began cohosting the political debate show Crossfire on CNN. The show was cancelled the following year, but he remained at CNN as a commentator until 2015, when he rejoined Fox News. In 2016 Gingrich served as an informal adviser on Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and was a vocal supporter of the candidate.

A prolific author, Gingrich contributed articles to numerous publications and penned such books as Lessons Learned the Hard Way (1998), Winning the Future: A 21st Century Contract with America (2005), Rediscovering God in America (2006), To Save America: Stopping Obama’s Secular-Socialist Machine (2010), Understanding Trump (2017), Trump vs. China: Facing America’s Greatest Threat (2019), and Trump and the American Future: Solving the Great Problems of Our Time (2020). He also cowrote international thrillers and alternative history series on the Civil War and World War II.