Gingrich Wins Big in South Carolina
Jan. 23, 2012
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich won the Republican presidential primary in South Carolina on January 21. Just 10 days after he finished a distant third in New Hampshire, Gingrich took 40 percent of the vote in South Carolina. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who was widely seen as the frontrunner, came in a distant second with 28 percent. Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum and Texas Representative Ron Paul trailed with 17 percent and 13 percent, respectively. Political experts noted that Gingrich owed his victory to evangelical Christians and Tea party activists, and to people who refer to themselves as “very conservative”–groups long resistant to Mitt Romney, whom they do not consider a true conservative.
Just days before losing in South Carolina, Mitt Romney also lost “officially” in Iowa. On January 19, the Iowa state Republican Party chairman, Matt Strawn, announced that Santorum, not Romney, had won the Iowa caucuses. While the former Massachusetts governor had been declared the winner by 8 votes on January 3, the final count had Santorum ahead by 34 votes.
Republican Representative Newt Gingerich (left) and Senator Robert J. Dole celebrate their party's victory in the 1994 elections that gave Republicans control of both houses of Congress for the first time since 1955. Gingrich became speaker of the House and Dole became Senate majority leader. AP/Wide World
Gingrich was a highly controversial speaker of the House. In 1997, the House reprimanded (to reprove severely or formally) Gingrich for unlawfully using tax-exempt foundation money to promote his agenda and for lying about it under oath to the House Ethics Committee. The reprimand was the first for a speaker in Congressional history, and he was fined $300,000. After Republicans lost House seats in the 1998 elections, dissatisfaction with Gingrich’s leadership grew. He resigned as speaker and from Congress in early 1999.
Additional World Book articles:
- Back in Time 1995 (Congress of the United States)
- Back in Time 1996 (Congress of the United States)
- Back in Time 1997 (Congress of the United States)
- Back in Time 1999 (Congress of the United States)
