Newt Gingrich
Gingrich at a political conference inOrlando, Florida.
58th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
In office January 4, 1995 – January 3, 1999
President	Bill Clinton
Preceded by	Tom Foley
Succeeded by	Dennis Hastert
House Minority Whip
In office March 20, 1989 – January 3, 1995
Leader	Robert H. Michel
Preceded by	Dick Cheney
Succeeded by	David E. Bonior
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Georgia's 6th district
In office January 3, 1979 – January 3, 1999
Preceded by	Jack Flynt
Succeeded by	Johnny Isakson
Personal details
Born	Newton Leroy McPherson June 17, 1943 (age 69) Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Jackie Battley (1962–1981) Marianne Ginther (1981–2000) Callista Bisek (2000–present)
Children	Kathy Gingrich Lubbers (born 1963) Jackie Gingrich Cushman (born 1966)
Residence	Carrollton, Georgia (1979–1993, while in office) Marietta, Georgia (1993–1999, while in office) McLean, Virginia (1999–present)[1]
Alma mater	Emory University (B.A.) Tulane University (M.A./PhD)
Occupation	Politician Author Assistant Professor
Religion	Roman Catholic[2] (formerlyBaptist, Lutheran)
Signature
Website	www.newt.org
This article is part of a series about Newt Gingrich 2012 presidential campaign Political positions Contract with America

Newton Leroy "Newt" Gingrich (pron.: /ˈnjuːt ˈɡɪŋɡrɪtʃ/; born Newton Leroy McPherson; June 17, 1943) is an American politician, author, and political consultant. He represented Georgia's 6th congressional district as a Republican from 1979 until his resignation in 1999, and served as the 58th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. Gingrich was a candidate for the 2012 Republican Party presidential nomination.

In the 1970s, Gingrich taught history and geography at the University of West Georgia. During this period he ran twice (1974 and 1976)[3] for the United States House of Representatives before winning in November 1978. He served as House Minority Whip from 1989 to 1995.

A co-author and architect of the "Contract with America", Gingrich was a major leader in the Republican victory in the 1994 congressional election. In 1995, Time named him "Man of the Year" for "his role in ending the four-decades-long Democratic majority in the House".[4] While he was House speaker, the House enacted welfare reform, passed a capital gains tax cut in 1997, and in 1998 passed the first balanced budget since 1969. The poor showing by Republicans in the 1998 Congressional election and pressure from Republican colleagues caused Gingrich's resignation from the speakership on November 6, 1998 [5] and then the House on January 3, 1999.
Since leaving the House, Gingrich has remained active in public policy debates and worked as a political consultant. He founded and chaired several policy think tanks, including American Solutions for Winning the Future and the Center for Health Transformation. He has written or co-authored 27 books. In May 2011, he announced his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. On May 2, 2012, Gingrich ended his presidential campaign and endorsed front-runner Mitt Romney.[6]

After being raised Lutheran and spending most of his adult life as a Southern Baptist, Gingrich converted to Roman Catholicism in 2009. He has been married three times, with the first two marriages ending in divorce. He has two children from his first marriage and has been married to Callista (Bisek) Gingrich since 2000.

Early life, family, and education
Newton Leroy McPherson was born at the Harrisburg Hospital in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on June 17, 1941. His mother, Kathleen "Kit" McPherson (née Daugherty; 1925–2003), and father, Newton Searles McPherson (1923–1970),[7] married in September 1942, when she was 16 and McPherson was 19. The marriage fell apart within days.[8][9][10] He is of German, English, Scottish, and Irish descent

In 1946, his mother married Army officer Robert Gingrich (1925–1996), who adopted Newt.[12] His father, a career officer, served tours in Korea and Vietnam. In 1956 the family moved to Europe living for a period in Orleans, France and Stuttgart, Germany.[13]
Gingrich has three younger half-sisters, Candace Gingrich-Jones, Susan Gingrich, and Roberta Brown[12] Gingrich was raised in Hummelstown (near Harrisburg) and on military bases where Robert Gingrich was stationed. The family's religion was Lutheran.[14] He also has a half-sister and half-brother, Randy McPherson, from his father's side. In 1960 the family moved to Georgia at Fort Benning during his junior year in high school.[13]

In 1961, Gingrich graduated from Baker High School in Columbus, Georgia. He had been interested in politics since his teen years while living inOrléans, France, where he visited the site of the Battle of Verdun and learned about the sacrifices made there and the importance of political leadership.[15] Choosing to obtain deferments granted to college students and fathers, Gingrich did not enlist in the military, and was not draftedduring the Vietnam War. He expressed some regret about that decision in 1985, saying, "Given everything I believe in, a large part of me thinks I should have gone over."[16]

Gingrich received a B.A. degree in history from Emory University in Atlanta in 1965. He then proceeded to earn an M.A. (1968) and PhD (1971) in Education, both from Tulane University in New Orleans.[17] He spent six months in Brussels in 1969–70 working on his dissertation, "Belgian Education Policy in the Congo 1945–1960".[18] In 1970, Gingrich joined the history department at West Georgia College as an assistant professor. In 1974 he moved to the geography department and was instrumental in establishing an interdisciplinary environmental studies program. Denied tenure, he left the college in 1978 as he was elected to Congress.[19]

Early political career
Gingrich was the southern regional director for Nelson Rockefeller in 1968.[20]

Congressional campaigns
In 1974, Gingrich made his first bid for political office as the Republican candidate in Georgia's 6th congressional district, which stretched from the southern Atlanta suburbs to the Alabamastate line. He lost to 20-year incumbent Democrat Jack Flynt by 2,770 votes. Gingrich ran up huge margins in the more suburban areas of the district, but was unable to overcome Flynt's lead in the more rural areas.[21] Gingrich's relative success came as a considerable shock on two fronts. Flynt had never faced a serious challenger—indeed, Gingrich was only the second Republican to even run against him.[22] Additionally, 1974 was a disastrous year for Republicans nationally due to fallout from the Watergate scandal.

Gingrich sought a rematch in 1976, this time losing by 5,100 votes.[23]

With Gingrich priming for another run in the 1978 elections, Flynt decided not to run for re-election and retired. Gingrich defeated Democratic State Senator Virginia Shapard by 7,500 votes.[24][25] Gingrich was re-elected six times from this district,[26] only facing a close general election race once—in the House elections of 1990—when he won by 978 votes in a race against Democrat David Worley. Although the district was trending Republican at the national level, conservative Democrats continued to hold most local offices, as well as most of the area's seats in the General Assembly, well into the 1980s.

In Congress
In 1981, Gingrich co-founded the Military Reform Caucus (MRC) and the Congressional Aviation and Space Caucus. During the 1983 congressional page sex scandal, Gingrich was among those calling for the expulsion of representatives Dan Crane and Gerry Studds.[27] Gingrich supported a proposal to ban loans from the International Monetary Fund to Communist countries and he endorsed a bill to make Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday a national holiday.[28]
 

Rep. Gingrich meets with PresidentRonald Reagan, 1985.

In 1983, he founded the Conservative Opportunity Society (COS), a group that included young conservative House Republicans. Early COS members includedRobert Smith Walker, Judd Gregg, Dan Coats and Connie Mack III. The group expanded over time to comprise several dozen representatives[29] who met each week to exchange and develop ideas.[28]

Gingrich's analysis of polls and public opinion identified the group's initial focus.[29] Ronald Reagan adopted the "opportunity society" ideas for his 1984 re-election campaign, supporting the group's conservative goals on economic growth, education, crime, and social issues, which he had not emphasized during his first term.[30] Reagan also referenced an "opportunity" society in the first State of the Union address of his second term.[29]

In May 1988, Gingrich (along with 77 other House members and Common Cause) brought ethics charges against Democratic Speaker Jim Wright, who was alleged to have used a book deal to circumvent campaign-finance laws and House ethics rules. During the investigation, it was noted Gingrich had his own unusual book deal, for Window of Opportunity, in which publicity expenses were covered by a limited partnership, which raised $105,000 from Republican political supporters to promote sales of Gingrich's book.[31] Gingrich's success in forcing Wright's resignation was in part responsible for his rising influence in the Republican caucus.[32]

In March 1989, Gingrich became House Minority Whip in a close election against Edward Rell Madigan.[33] This was Gingrich's first formal position of power within the Republican party[34] He stated his intention to "build a much more aggressive, activist party."[33] Early in his role as Whip, in May 1989, Gingrich was involved in talks about the appointment of a Panamanianadministrator of the Panama Canal, which was scheduled to occur in 1989 subject to U.S. government approval. Gingrich was outspoken in his opposition to giving control over the canal to an administrator appointed by the dictatorship in Panama.[35]

Gingrich and others in the House, including the newly minted Gang of Seven, railed against what they saw as ethical lapses under Democratic control for almost 40 years. The House banking scandaland Congressional Post Office scandal were emblems of the exposed corruption. Gingrich himself was among the 450 members of the House who had engaged in check kiting; he had overdrafts on twenty-two checks, including a $9,463 check to the Internal Revenue Service in 1990.[36]
 

In 1990, after consulting focus groups[37] with the help of pollster Frank Luntz,[38] GOPAC distributed a memo with a cover letter signed by Gingrich titled "Language, a Key Mechanism of Control", that encouraged Republicans to "speak like Newt" and contained lists of "contrasting words" – words with negative connotations such as "radical", "sick," and "traitors" – and "optimistic positive governing words" such as "opportunity", "courage", and "principled", that Gingrich recommended for use in describing Democrats and Republicans, respectively.[37]

As a result of the 1990 United States Census, Georgia picked up an additional seat for the 1992 U.S. House elections. However, the Democratic-controlled Georgia General Assembly under the leadership of fiercely partisan Speaker of the House Tom Murphy specifically targeted Gingrich, eliminating the district that Gingrich represented.[39] Gerrymandering split Gingrich's territory among three neighboring districts. Much of the southern portion of Gingrich's district, including his home in Carrollton, was drawn into the Columbus-based 3rd District, represented by five-term Democrat Richard Ray. Gingrich remarked that "The Speaker, by raising money and gerrymandering, has sincerely dedicated a part of his career to wiping me out."[39] At the same time, the Assembly created a new, heavily Republican 6th District in Fulton and Cobb counties in the wealthy northern suburbs of Atlanta—-an area that Gingrich had never represented. However, Gingrich sold his home in Carrollton and moved to Marietta in the new 6th. His primary opponent, State Representative Herman Clark, made an issue out of Gingrich's 22 kited checks in the House Bank Scandal, and also criticized Gingrich for moving into the district. After a recount Gingrich prevailed by 980 votes, or a 51% to 49% result[40]—all but assuring him of election in November. He was re-elected three times from this district against only nominal Democratic opposition.

"Republican Revolution" of 1994
Main article: Republican Revolution
In the 1994 campaign season, in an effort to offer an alternative to Democratic policies and to unite distant wings of the Republican Party, Gingrich and several other Republicans came up with aContract with America, which laid out ten policies that Republicans promised to bring to a vote on the House floor during the first hundred days of the new Congress, if they won the election.[41] The contract was signed by Gingrich and other Republican candidates for the House of Representatives. The contract ranged from issues such as welfare reform, term limits, tougher crime laws, and a balanced budget law, to more specialized legislation such as restrictions on American military participation in United Nations missions.

In the November 1994 elections, Republicans gained 54 seats and took control of the House for the first time since 1954. Long-time House Minority Leader Bob Michel of Illinois had not run for re-election, giving Gingrich, the highest-ranking Republican returning to Congress, the inside track at becoming speaker. The midterm election that turned congressional power over to Republicans "changed the center of gravity" in the nation's capital.[42] Time magazine named Gingrich its 1995 "Man of the Year" for his role in the election.[4]

Speaker of the House
 

Gingrich's official portrait as Speaker

Main article: Contract with America
The House fulfilled Gingrich's promise to bring all ten of the Contract's issues to a vote within the first 100 days of the session, even though most of the legislation was initially held up in the Senate by the objection of liberal/progressive interest groups[43] and President Clinton, who called it the "Contract on America".[44]

Legislation proposed by the 104th United States Congress included term limits for Congressional Representatives, tax cuts, welfare reform, and a balanced budget amendment, as well as independent auditing of the finances of the House of Representatives and elimination of non-essential services such as the House barbershop and shoe-shine concessions. Following Gingrich's first two years as House Speaker, the Republican majority was re-elected in the 1996 election, the first time Republicans had done so in 68 years, and the first time simultaneously with a Democratic president winning re-election.[45]

Legislation

Welfare reform
A central pledge of President Bill Clinton's campaign was to reform the welfare system, adding changes such as work requirements for recipients. However, by 1994, the Clinton Administration appeared to be more concerned with pursuing a universal health care program. Gingrich accused Clinton of stalling on welfare, and proclaimed that Congress could pass a welfare reform bill in as little as 90 days. He insisted that the Republican Party would continue to apply political pressure to the President to approve their welfare legislation.[46]
In 1996, after constructing two welfare reform bills that Clinton vetoed,[47] Gingrich and his supporters pushed for passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, which was intended to reconstruct the welfare system. The act gave state governments more autonomy over welfare delivery, while also reducing the federal government's responsibilities. It instituted the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, which placed time limits on welfare assistance and replaced the longstanding Aid to Families with Dependent Children program. Other changes to the welfare system included stricter conditions for food stamp eligibility, reductions in immigrant welfare assistance, and work requirements for recipients.[48] The bill was signed into law on August 22, 1996.
In his 1998 book Lessons Learned the Hard Way, Gingrich encouraged volunteerism and spiritual renewal, placing more importance on families, creating tax incentives and reducing regulations for businesses in poor neighborhoods, and increasing property ownership by low-income families. He also praised Habitat for Humanity for sparking the movement to improve people's lives by helping them build their own homes.[49]

Balancing the federal budget
Although congressional Republicans had opposed Clinton's Deficit Reduction Act of 1993, a key aspect of the 1994 Contract with America was the promise of a balanced federal budget. After the end of the government shutdown, Gingrich and other Republican leaders acknowledged that Congress would not be able to draft a balanced budget in 1996. Instead, they opted to approve some small reductions that were already approved by the White House and to wait until the next election season.[50]