Newt Gingrich

Newt Gingrich is well known as the architect of the “Contract with America” that led the Republican Party to victory in 1994 by capturing the majority in the U.S. House for the first time in 40 years. Under his leadership as Speaker of the House, Congress passed welfare reform, passed the first balanced budget in a generation, and passed the first tax cut in 16 years. In addition, Congress restored funding to strengthen U.S. defense and intelligence capabilities, an action later lauded by the bipartisan 9/11 Commission. 

Widely recognized for his commitment to a better system of health care for all Americans, Gingrich’s leadership helped save Medicare from bankruptcy, prompted FDA reform to help the seriously ill, and initiated a new focus on research, prevention, and wellness. The American Diabetes Association awarded him its highest non-medical award, and the March of Dimes named him 1995 Georgia Citizen of the Year. Today Gingrich serves as a board member of the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation.

In his book, Saving Lives & Saving Money, Gingrich describes his vision of a
21st-century system of health and health care that is centered on the individual, prevention-focused, knowledge-intense, and innovation-rich. He makes the case for a market-mediated system that will improve choice and quality while driving down costs. To foster such a modern health system that provides better outcomes at lower cost, Gingrich founded the Center for Health Transformation (www.healthtransformation.net).

Gingrich also serves with former Senator Bob Kerrey as co-chairman of the National Commission for Quality Long-term Care. The commission will make recommendations to policymakers and the public on how to transform health care services for the frail elderly and disabled in order to maximize independence and achieve a high quality of life and quality of care for our aging population. 

In 1999, Gingrich was appointed to the U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century (Hart-Rudman Commission) to examine our national security challenges as far out as 2025. The commission’s report is the most profound rethinking of defense strategy since 1947. The report concluded that the No. 1 threat to the United States was the likelihood over the next 25 years of a weapon of mass destruction — nuclear, chemical, and/or biological — being used against one or more major cities unless our defense and intelligence structures underwent a massive transformation. That report was published six months before September 11.

Because of his work on the commission, Gingrich is credited with the idea contained in the report of a Homeland Security Agency with a Secretary to serve on the Cabinet level.  President George W. Bush has since created the Department of Homeland Security.

Gingrich is chairman of the Gingrich Group, a communications and consulting firm that specializes in transformational change, with offices in Atlanta and Washington, D.C. He serves as a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., and is an Honorary Chairman of the NanoBusiness Alliance. He is also a news and political analyst for the Fox News Channel.

Gingrich is a leading advocate of increased federal funding for basic science research.  In 2001, he was the recipient of the Science Coalition’s first Science Pioneer award, given to him for his outstanding contributions to educating the public about science and its benefits to society.

A strong advocate of volunteerism, Gingrich has long championed the positive impact every individual can have on society.  He has raised millions of dollars for charity, donating both time and money to a wide array of causes, including Habitat for Humanity, United Cerebral Palsy, the American Cancer Society, and ZooAtlanta. In 1998, the Georgia Wildlife Federation named him Legislative Conservationist of the Year.

Gingrich was first elected to Congress in 1978 and served the Sixth District of Georgia for 20 years. In 1995, he was elected Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and served until 1999. 

His experiences as the son of a career soldier convinced him at an early age to dedicate his life to his country and to the protection of freedom. Realizing the importance of understanding the past in order to protect the future, he immersed himself in the study of history, receiving a bachelor’s degree from Emory University and master’s and doctorate in modern European history from Tulane University. Before his election to Congress, he taught history and environmental studies at West Georgia College for eight years.

He resides in Virginia with his wife, Callista. He has two daughters and two grandchildren.