Newton Gingrich is a former American politician and novelist who served as the 50th Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. He served as the Republican Party’s representative for Georgia’s 6th congressional district, representing north Atlanta and surrounding suburbs, from 1979 until his departure in 1999. Newt Gingrich ran unsuccessfully for the republican President of the United States in 2012.
Newt Gingrich Career
Newt, a history and geography professor at the University of West Georgia in the 1970s, was elected to the United States House of Representatives in November 1978, becoming the first Republican to do so in Georgia’s 6th congressional district. From 1989 through 1995, he was the House Minority Whip. co-author, and architect of the “Contract with America,” was a crucial figure in the Republican win in the 1994 congressional election. Time awarded him “Man of the Year” in 1995 for his “part in ending the four-decade-long Democratic control in the House.”
As House Speaker, Gingrich led the passage of welfare reform and a capital gains tax decrease in 1997. Gingrich was instrumental in many government shutdowns and impeached President Bill Clinton on a party-line vote in the House. Republicans’ dismal showing in the 1998 congressional elections, censure from the House for Gingrich’s ethical violation, and pressure from Republican colleagues all contributed to Gingrich’s resignation from the speakership on November 6, 1998.
On January 3, 1999, he resigned entirely from the House. Political scientists have blamed Gingrich for eroding democratic standards in the United States and hastening political polarization and partisanship. After leaving the House, Gingrich remained active in public policy discussions and worked as a political consultant. He established and led several policy think tanks, including American Solutions for Winning the Future and the Center for Health Transformation. Gingrich sought the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 and was considered a potential frontrunner at various times in the race.
Despite an astonishing late victory in the South Carolina primary, Gingrich could not win enough contests to establish a competitive candidacy. He dropped out of the race in May 2012, endorsing eventual nominee Mitt Romney. Gingrich became a prominent ally of President Donald Trump and was allegedly one of the finalists on Trump’s shortlist for running mate. Gingrich has endorsed Trump’s voter fraud charges in the 2020 presidential election.
Newt – Political Positions
Gingrich is well known for the 1994 Contract with America. He founded the American organization Solutions for Winning the Future. Gingrich has recently called for replacing the Environmental Protection Agency with a planned “Environmental Solutions Agency.” He supports a strict border policy and a foreign labor program. In terms of energy policy, he has advocated for flex-fuel mandates for cars sold in the United States and has championed the use of ethanol in general.
During a Fox News interview in August 2021, Gingrich was alleged to have reiterated the Great Replacement hypothesis. Gingrich has a negative attitude about internationalism and the United Nations. In 2015, he stated, “After several years of studying the UN, I can tell that it is sufficiently corrupt and inefficient. That no rational person would believe it.” Gingrich published Rediscovering God in America in 2007.
Gingrich’s subsequent publications, such as Winning the Future and To Save America, focus on large-scale policy issues. Gingrich has called education “the number one factor in our future prosperity,” and he has worked on school problems alongside Al Sharpton and Education Secretary Arne Duncan. Although he previously opposed gay marriage, Gingrich proposed in December 2012 that Republicans reconsider their opposition.
In 2014, Gingrich wrote to Dr. John Koza of National Popular Vote, Inc. to support the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, under which member states would allocate their Electoral College votes to the victor of the national popular vote. On July 14, 2016, Gingrich claimed that Americans of Muslim origin who believe in Sharia rule should be deported and that browsing websites that advocate the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant or Al-Qaeda should be considered a criminal.
On July 21, 2016, Gingrich claimed that NATO countries “ought to be concerned” about the United States’ commitment to their protection. He remarked, “They should be concerned about commitment under any circumstances. Every President has stated that NATO members are not paying their fair share “. He also remarked that if the United States were to offer aid to Estonia (a NATO member) in the case of a Russian invasion, he “would think about it a lot.”
According to Science magazine, Gingrich went from “cautious skeptic in the late 1980s to believer in the late 2000s to skeptic again during the [2016] campaign” on climate change.
In January 2022, Gingrich described the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack as “essentially a lynch mob” that was breaking the law and trampling on civil freedoms, implying that committee members may be imprisoned if Republicans won control of the House in that year’s election.
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Gingrich Early Life
Gingrich was born Newton Leroy McPherson on June 17, 1943, at Harrisburg Hospital in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Kathleen “Kit” McPherson (1923-1970) and Newton Searles McPherson (1923-1970) married in September 1942, when she was 16 and McPherson was 19. Within days, the marriage was over. His mother married Robert Gingrich (1925-1996), who adopted him in 1946. In Korea and Vietnam, Robert Gingrich served as a professional Army officer. In 1956, the family moved to Europe, spending time in Orléans, France, and Stuttgart, Germany.
In 1961, Gingrich graduated from Baker High School in Columbus, Georgia, where he met and married his math teacher. He’d been interested in politics since he was a teenager. While residing in Orléans, France, with his family, he toured the Battle of Verdun and learned about the sacrifices made there and the significance of political leadership.
Gingrich graduated from Emory University in Atlanta with a Bachelor of Arts in history in 1965. He completed his studies at Tulane University, receiving an M.A. (1968) and a Ph.D. in European history (1971). From 1969-70, he spent six months in Brussels researching his Belgian Education Policy in the Congo on his dissertation.
Newt Personal Life
Gingrich has been married three times. In 1962, he married Jacqueline May “Jackie” Battley (February 21, 1936 – August 7, 2013), his old high school geometry teacher, when he was 19 and 26. They had two daughters: Kathy, the President of Gingrich Communications, and Jackie Sue, an author, conservative columnist, and political commentator.
Gingrich married Marianne Ginther six months after his divorce from Jackie was finalized in 1981. Marianne supported them in establishing financial control and getting out of debt. On the other hand, she was uninterested in a politician’s spouse’s public life. Kathy Gingrich described her father’s marriage as “tough.”
Gingrich began an affair with Callista Bisek, a House of Representatives staffer more than two decades his junior, in 1993 while he was still married to Marianne but later married her. Recently, Newt Gingrich weight loss as he shed a lot of weight.
Newt Gingrich’s Net Worth
Newt has a $9 million net worth. Newt amassed his fortune while serving as the 58th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999 and as a consultant and creator of several big enterprises.
His for-profit businesses made a total of $100 million in revenue in the decade following his departure from government. Newt controversially received over $2 million in consultancy fees from the ostensibly government-backed business Freddie Mac as a consultant. Gingrich is also a history professor and the author of approximately 30 books.
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