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Ed Gillespie
Edward Walter Gillespie (born August 1, 1961) is an American politician, strategist, and lobbyist who served as the sixty-first chair of the Republican National Committee from 2003 to 2005 and was counselor to the president from 2007 to 2009 during the presidency of George W. Bush. In 2012, Gillespie was a senior member of the Mitt Romney presidential campaign.
Gillespie founded the bipartisan lobbying firm Quinn Gillespie & Associates with Jack Quinn, and founded Ed Gillespie Strategies.
Gillespie ran in the 2014 United States Senate election in Virginia. Gillespie narrowly lost to incumbent Mark Warner by a margin of 0.8%. Gillespie ran for governor of Virginia in the 2017 election. After winning the Republican primary, he was defeated in the general election by Democratic nominee Ralph Northam; Gillespie received 1.17 million votes (45%) to Northam's 1.40 million (54%) in the election.
In 2020, Gillespie was hired by AT&T to serve as senior executive vice president for external and legislative affairs. Previously, he served as co-chairman of Sard Verbinnen & Co.'s public affairs practice.
Edward Walter Gillespie was born on August 1, 1961, in Mount Holly, New Jersey, and raised in the Browns Mills section of Pemberton Township, New Jersey. He is the son of Conny (Carroll) and Sean (later John) Patrick Gillespie, an immigrant from Ireland who grew up in North Philadelphia. His parents owned a small grocery store in New Jersey, and Gillespie worked there after school.
Gillespie is a graduate of The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and Pemberton Township High School. While at CUA he began his career on Capitol Hill as a U.S. Senate parking lot attendant. One of his co-workers there was an intern for Representative Andy Ireland of Florida, and through him, Gillespie got the same job after he graduated from college.
Gillespie, raised in a Democratic family, began his political career as intern for Andy Ireland, at the time a Democrat from Florida. In 1984, Ireland joined the Republican party with Gillespie following, saying, "I liked President Reagan's approach to governing and it just made sense to me." In his book, Winning Right, Gillespie described himself as someone who "all but had 'Democrat' stamped on his birth certificate," but had become increasingly uncomfortable with the leftward tilt of the national party and believed it wasn't taking the threat of Communism seriously. As he saw it, he and Ireland were classic Reagan Democrats who became Republicans–"a southern conservative and a young northeastern ethnic Catholic who no longer felt comfortable in the party of their heritage."
Gillespie worked as telephone solicitor for the Republican National Committee in 1985, and later worked for a decade as a top aide to former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX), and was a principal drafter of the GOP's 1994 "Contract With America."
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Ed Gillespie
Edward Walter Gillespie (born August 1, 1961) is an American politician, strategist, and lobbyist who served as the sixty-first chair of the Republican National Committee from 2003 to 2005 and was counselor to the president from 2007 to 2009 during the presidency of George W. Bush. In 2012, Gillespie was a senior member of the Mitt Romney presidential campaign.
Gillespie founded the bipartisan lobbying firm Quinn Gillespie & Associates with Jack Quinn, and founded Ed Gillespie Strategies.
Gillespie ran in the 2014 United States Senate election in Virginia. Gillespie narrowly lost to incumbent Mark Warner by a margin of 0.8%. Gillespie ran for governor of Virginia in the 2017 election. After winning the Republican primary, he was defeated in the general election by Democratic nominee Ralph Northam; Gillespie received 1.17 million votes (45%) to Northam's 1.40 million (54%) in the election.
In 2020, Gillespie was hired by AT&T to serve as senior executive vice president for external and legislative affairs. Previously, he served as co-chairman of Sard Verbinnen & Co.'s public affairs practice.
Edward Walter Gillespie was born on August 1, 1961, in Mount Holly, New Jersey, and raised in the Browns Mills section of Pemberton Township, New Jersey. He is the son of Conny (Carroll) and Sean (later John) Patrick Gillespie, an immigrant from Ireland who grew up in North Philadelphia. His parents owned a small grocery store in New Jersey, and Gillespie worked there after school.
Gillespie is a graduate of The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and Pemberton Township High School. While at CUA he began his career on Capitol Hill as a U.S. Senate parking lot attendant. One of his co-workers there was an intern for Representative Andy Ireland of Florida, and through him, Gillespie got the same job after he graduated from college.
Gillespie, raised in a Democratic family, began his political career as intern for Andy Ireland, at the time a Democrat from Florida. In 1984, Ireland joined the Republican party with Gillespie following, saying, "I liked President Reagan's approach to governing and it just made sense to me." In his book, Winning Right, Gillespie described himself as someone who "all but had 'Democrat' stamped on his birth certificate," but had become increasingly uncomfortable with the leftward tilt of the national party and believed it wasn't taking the threat of Communism seriously. As he saw it, he and Ireland were classic Reagan Democrats who became Republicans–"a southern conservative and a young northeastern ethnic Catholic who no longer felt comfortable in the party of their heritage."
Gillespie worked as telephone solicitor for the Republican National Committee in 1985, and later worked for a decade as a top aide to former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX), and was a principal drafter of the GOP's 1994 "Contract With America."