What is Newt Gingrich's Net Worth?
Newt Gingrich is a Republican politician who has a net worth of $12 million. According to his own financial disclosure in 2006, at that time Newt Gingrich's net worth was $2.4 million. In 2011, when he was a candidate for President, Newt reported his net worth to be $6.7 million. The majority of his net worth comes from a "multi-million-dollar promissory note from the Gingrich Group, LLC to Gingrich Productions, Inc., entities that are part of Gingrich's eponymous network of nonprofit and for-profit organizations." The value range he gave in 2011 for that promissory note was $5 to $25 million.
Newt Gingrich served as the Speaker of the US House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999, and as the US representative for Georgia's 6th congressional district from 1979 until 1999. In 2012, he unsuccessfully ran for the Republican presidential nomination.
Early Life and Education
Newt Gingrich was born as Newton McPherson on June 17, 1943 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to single mother Kit, whose marriage to his biological father Newton Sr. last just days. His mother remarried, to career Army officer Robert Gingrich, in 1946. A decade later, the family moved to Europe, living for periods in France and Germany. Gingrich has three younger half-siblings from his mother: Candace, Susan, and Roberta. He also has a half-sister and half-brother from his biological father. When Gingrich was a junior in high school, he moved with his family to Fort Benning, Georgia. He went on to attend Baker High School in Columbus, graduating in 1961. For his higher education, Gingrich attended Emory University, from which he earned his BA in history, and then Tulane University, where he obtained his MA and PhD in European history.
Career Beginnings
Due to his status as a student and a father, Gingrich received deferments from the military during the Vietnam War. He continued on in academia after earning his PhD, first in the history department of West Georgia College, and subsequently in the school's geography department. Gingrich left in 1977 after being denied tenure.
Gingrich became heavily involved in politics in the 1970s. In 1974, he made his first bid for political office running as a Republican for Georgia's 6th congressional district. He ultimately lost to incumbent Democrat Jack Flynt. Gingrich ran again in 1976, losing to Jimmy Carter.
US House of Representatives
Gingrich finally won election to the US Congress on his third attempt, in 1978. He would go on to be reelected five times from Georgia's 6th congressional district, serving until 1999. During his final years in Congress, he also served as the 50th Speaker of the US House of Representatives. Early in his congressional career, Gingrich co-founded the Military Reform Caucus and the Congressional Aviation and Space Caucus, and founded the Conservative Opportunity Society.
In 1989, he became House Minority Whip, giving him a new level of power in the Republican Party. The following year, Gingrich led a protest against George H. W. Bush's deficit reduction package, leading to a federal government shutdown. His efforts and those of other GOP members culminated in the 1994 Republican Revolution, when the Party gained 54 seats and took control of the House for the first time in 40 years.
With the Republicans having taken the House, Gingrich became the new Speaker in 1995. In his role, he oversaw the passage of welfare reform legislation and a capital gains tax cut, and was responsible for numerous government shutdowns. Gingrich was also central to the Republican Party's increasingly close alignment with Christian conservatism.
Gingrich received 84 ethics charges, and in early 1997 was reprimanded by the House for claiming tax-exempt status for a college course he had run for political reasons. Pressured by Republican colleagues, who were planning to rebel against him, Gingrich resigned from the House in early 1999.
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Post-Speakership Career
After leaving the House, Gingrich remained involved in public policy and political consultation. He founded and chaired a number of policy think tanks, including the Center for Health Transformation and American Solutions for Winning the Future. The former filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2012, while the latter, which promoted the deregulation and increase of offshore oil drilling, was shuttered in 2011. Gingrich has also served on various commissions, such as the Hart-Rudman Commission, and has taught at such institutions as Air University and the National Defense University. Elsewhere, he served as an advisor to the Canadian mining company Barrick Gold. On the media front, Gingrich created his own production company, Gingrich Productions.
2012 Presidential Campaign
In 2012, Gingrich sought to return to political office as a Republican candidate for the presidential nomination. After struggling in the Iowa Republican caucuses and New Hampshire Republican primary, he bounced back to win the South Carolina Republican primary. Later, following a disappointing showing in the Delaware primary, Gingrich suspended his campaign.
Relationship with Donald Trump
Leading up to the 2016 presidential election, Gingrich was among the first establishment Republicans to endorse Donald Trump. He consulted on Trump's campaign and encouraged other Republicans to unify behind him. Later, when Trump lost the 2020 election, Gingrich perpetuated the Big Lie that the election had been stolen. He even called for the arrest of poll workers in Pennsylvania.
Personal Life
Gingrich has been married multiple times. His first wife was Jacqueline Battley, his high school geometry teacher; they married in 1962 when Gingrich was 19 and she was 26. The couple had two daughters, Kathy and Jackie. During the marriage, Gingrich had multiple affairs with his congressional campaign volunteers. He ended up divorcing Battley in 1980 after beginning an affair with Marianne Ginther, whom he wed the following year. Once again, Gingrich had an extra-marital affair, this time with Callista Bisek, a House of Representatives staffer two decades his junior. During this affair, he led the impeachment of Bill Clinton on charges related to Clinton's infidelity. Gingrich got divorced from Ginther in 2000 just months after Ginther was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis; he subsequently married his mistress Bisek.
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