Newt Gingrich 2012 presidential campaign

The 2012 presidential campaign of Newt Gingrich, former U.S. Representative of Georgia and Speaker of the House, was formally launched on May 11, 2011, through a video posted on Facebook and YouTube, following the establishment of an exploratory committee on March 3 and speculation about a potential run for the office.

Gingrich gained national prominence during the 1994 midterm elections due to his efforts to unify the Republican Party's campaigns under a single platform, dubbed the "Contract with America." The elections led to the Republican Party controlling both chambers of Congress. Gingrich was subsequently elected as Speaker, holding the office until his resignation from the House at the beginning of the 106th Congress's term in 1999. Afterward, Gingrich would chair various think tanks, occasionally serving as a commentator on Fox News.

Gingrich's platform, dubbed the "21st Century Contract with America," proposed repealing the Affordable Care Act, which he characterized as "unconstitutional, unaffordable, unworkable and stunningly unfair." Gingrich also pledged to decrease the power of the judicial branch to centralize lawmaking efforts within the executive and legislative branches, citing concerns about "activist" and "lawless" judges. Other tenets included increasing law enforcement at the Mexico–United States border, and opposition to the legalization of same-sex marriage.

The campaign was hampered early on, when Gingrich gaffed in criticizing the House Republicans' budget plan during an appearance on Meet the Press, as well as the revelation that he and his wife, Callista, had incurred a debt of hundreds of thousands of dollars at a jewelry store. In June 2011, eighteen of Gingrich's staffers resigned over disagreements regarding the campaign's lax schedule, particularly noting his choice to vacation on a cruise in the Greek isles. By early December, however, Gingrich had been forecasted as the frontrunner, primarily due to support from the party's conservative bloc and the Tea Party movement, although his performance had begun to wane later on in the month as Mitt Romney, a more moderate candidate, gained more support.

Despite Gingrich's victory in the South Carolina primary, his performance quickly worsened, mainly marred by problems with staffing and heavy debt. Following a rally in Florida prior to the state's primary elections, Gingrich's potential handling of the economy was further called into question by commentators and rivals when he proposed to have a moon colony built by 2020. Following a poor performance in Nevada on February 4, the campaign began to increasingly focus on building support among Southern voters, deliberately avoiding campaigning in states where his polling was poor. After only managing to win Georgia, his home state, on Super Tuesday (March 6), Gingrich continued to underperform as his media coverage dropped, culminating with his decision to suspend his campaign after winning merely 26% of the vote to Romney's 56% in the Delaware primary on April 24. Gingrich announced the suspension on May 2 at a hotel ballroom in Washington, D.C., publicly endorsing Romney four days later.