Thursday, April 10th, 2014 09:19:34

The Color of Georgia

My father, Newt Gingrich, ran for congress in rural, west, middle Georgia in 1974. At the time, Georgia was dominated by the Democratic Party, there were few Republicans in the state and Watergate was in full swing. Somehow, against this headwind, he managed to garner 49 percent of the vote. He never stopped running, waking up the day after the election to shake hands at the Ford Factory as their shift changed.

In spring of 1976, when former Georgia Jimmy Carter swung ahead in the Democratic Presidential Primary polls, my father knew that this would make his race tight.