Newt Gingrich presidential campaign, 2012

The 2012 presidential campaign of Newt Gingrich, former U.S. Representative from Georgia and Speaker of the House, began shortly following the 2010 midterm elections. He was politically active during the midterm elections, and helped several Tea Party-backed Republicans with his endorsements and fundraising abilities. In early 2011, he chose to run for president and left his position as a political analyst for Fox News to seek the 2012 Republican Party nomination for President of the United States. He suffered significant campaign staff troubles in June but by November had revived his campaign with a new more tech savvy staff, including many Tea Party leaders, such as National Digital Director, Chris Horne, from the Charleston Tea Party and Gerri McDaniels, founder of the Myrtle Beach Tea Party. With these proven grass roots leaders and through very aggressive debate performances Gingrich took the lead in the southern primary states. His flagship campaign strategy was the introduction of a new "21st Century Contract", which was an overhaul of the original 1994 "Contract with America". This new contract outlined very specific campaign promises, and the people responded favorably. Gingrich's numbers continued to rise and more middle ground voters were starting to support the Newt 2012 Movement.