Nearly 24 years after resigning as House speaker, Newt Gingrich is in a familiar Capitol Hill role — sought out by Republicans for policy and political expertise while being treated by Democrats with deep skepticism, bordering at times on contempt.
House Republicans, within striking distance of winning a majority in November, have sought advice from Gingrich on crafting a policy platform for what they hope will be a January 2023 ascent to power. At the same time, House Democrats are pressing the onetime lawmaker from Georgia on a very different matter — his role in former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020 win.
The dichotomy reflects the contrasting partisan roles of and perceptions of Gingrich going back to his first election to the House in 1978, representing a suburban Atlanta district. House Republicans at the time were buried deep in the minority amid Democrats' four-decade majority run from 1955-95.
Gingrich, throughout the late Cold War era, convinced his GOP colleagues they could one day win a majority. Gingrich scored a leadership position in March 1989 as minority whip. And the 1994 "Republican Revolution" effectively handed the former college history professor the speaker’s gavel, putting him second in line for presidential succession behind only the vice president.
