Newt Gingrich Announces He’s Running For President

Starting with a Twitter announcement, and a video, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has informed the world that he’s running for President:

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich announced the launch of a presidential campaign for the next election cycle on Wednesday.

Gingrich wrote in a tweet, “Today I am announcing my candidacy for President of the United States.” Along with the message, the newly-minted Republican contender included a link to video of his campaign announcement. The link, however, appeared to be broken at the time it was sent.

“I’m announcing my candidacy for president of the United States because I believe we can return America to hope and opportunity, to full employment, to real security, to an American energy program, to a balanced budget,” Gingrich says in the video dispatched to supporters. “I worked with President Ronald Reagan in a very difficult period. We got jobs created again. Americans proud of America. And the Soviet Union disappeared.”

Last week, the presidential hopeful tapped Republican strategist Rob Johnson to serve as campaign manager for his operation. His team also opened up headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.

While recent polls haven’t shown Gingrich to be running at the front of the pack of likely Republican presidential contenders, the former speaker is perhaps one of the better known conservative names eyeing the GOP nomination to take on President Barack Obama in 2012.

Today’s Politico reports that Gingrich is planning an ambitious campaign that envisions contesting every possible state primary:

For Newt Gingrich, who will announce his candidacy Wednesday, the road to the Republican nomination runs through Iowa.

And New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada and Florida.

Unlike some of his likely rivals, who are looking to downplay or even flat out skip some states on the primary calendar, Gingrich is headed down a different path, a more traditional route in which he will compete aggressively across the early-state map and among all blocs within the party.

That most likely means participating in this summer’s Iowa GOP straw poll in Ames, traditional retail politicking in New Hampshire and making an all-out effort in South Carolina. But Gingrich officials say their effort will be bigger than any one state and look dramatically different than any other campaign.

Since Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman can spend their own millions on their campaigns and remain on the airwaves even after sustaining early losses, advisers to the former House speaker don’t believe it’s possible to lock up the nomination by winning one or even two initial contests. So Gingrich isn’t pinning his hopes on any single state, believing instead that, for those who can’t fund their own campaigns, the drawn-out contest will require a prudent use of resources spread across the board. (See also: Jon Huntsman to storm New Hampshire)

“You’ve got to compete everywhere and appeal to Republican primary voters across the board — you can’t cherry-pick places [where] you think you can win,” said Dave Carney, a New Hampshire-based Gingrich strategist and longtime GOP consultant, predicting a “long, hard-fought battle,” thanks to the prospective self-funders.

“Even if their ideas aren’t working and they’re not getting any traction, they can stay in the race,” he said.

Said another Gingrich adviser: “Newt’s a national candidate. He has a national brand. He’s a national leader.”

Really? To be honest I haven’t met a single Republican who is looking forward to Gingrich entering the race. He’s got a ton of baggage, he’s been out of  office since 1998, and he’s spent much of the last 13 years backing proposals that many conservatives now find anathema, such as George Bush’s No Child Left Behind and Medicare Part D. Still, Gingrich’s skills as a debate can’t be denied and when other candidates falter who knows what he’ll be able to to do. It will, at the least, be interesting to watch.

Meanwhile, look above at the new front page at Newt.org. Notice a familiar slogan? I wonder how many Republicans will like the idea that he’s taken a slogan that the President has been using for the past several months.

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Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. legion says:

    Well, since Trump looks to be bowing out, we were clearly running low on our “morally-repugnant egomaniac with freakshow hair” quota…

  2. Hey Norm says:

    If I believed in God I would thank her…for now I can sleep at night.

  3. Brett says:

    Finally. I hope this puts a burr under the butts of several of Gingrich’s rivals for the nomination to declare, so we can get some actual campaigning.

    Then again, maybe I shouldn’t be so happy. Once the primary campaigns kick off, cable news is going to be horrible – Horse Race Politics to the Max.

  4. wonkie says:

    Well lets’ see…he’s a liar, a hypocrite, an partisan ideologue, and up to his eyeballs i corruption. Looks to me like the perfect cadidate except for one small detail: he’s too blatant. The Repubican leadership needs a plausible smoothie, someone with the requisite characteristics but a more presentable facade, to be their candidate.

  5. michael reynolds says:

    It’s not good when your candidacy announcement draws a chorus of sighs and rolled eyes.

  6. wr says:

    It might help if he wasn’t running on Obama’s slogan.

  7. G.A.Phillips says:

    Gingrich sucks!

    To bad we need the Alpha Honey Badger so bad here in WI….

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4my9XoKnFA&feature=youtu.be

  8. G.A.Phillips says:

    It might help if he wasn’t running on Obama’s slogan.

    lol, whats that? Me,Me,Me,I,I,I?

  9. anjin-san says:

    Brett,

    Who are newts rivals again? Is it Potsie and Ralph Malph?

  10. Hey Norm says:

    Isn’t Newt a quitter…just like Palin?

  11. Hey Norm says:

    Gingrich/Palin ’12
    For A 1/2 Term Anyway

  12. “In no sense is Newt Gingrich a conservative or even a traditional Republican. He was a fellow at the neocon (Zionist warmonger) criminal organizations… Newt Gingrich has also attended Bohemian Grove where he rubbed elbows with occultists and male prostitutes…he is a demonstrated liar.” — Kurt Nimmo

  13. Kylopod says:

    >“I worked with President Ronald Reagan in a very difficult period. We got jobs created again. Americans proud of America. And the Soviet Union disappeared.”

    It sure did, despite the fact that Gingrich at the time compared Reagan with Neville Chamberlain for his decision to meet with Gorbachev. That’s a little detail he’d probably rather not have you remember.

  14. G.A.Phillips says:

    It sure did, despite the fact that Gingrich at the time compared Reagan with Neville Chamberlain for his decision to meet with Gorbachev.

    wow, lol, did not know that.

  15. wr says:

    Kurt Nimmo? The guy who thinks Bill O’Reilly secretly works for the CIA? Yeah, I’d run around quoting that clown…

  16. Montana says:

    When I think of Newt, I think of high self-importance policy and well who am I kidding he has as much chance of getting the GOP nomination as does Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump or Herman Cain (honestly what problems has he solved as a pizza man/ Federal Reserve worker?).

    Newt Gingrich just wants another opportunity to cheat on his new wife with an intern just like the TRUMP did or does, the only difference is that Newt buys American unlike the DONALD who can’t handle the made in the US label. He is damaged goods, he belong in the scrap heap.